ISLAMABAD, 19 February 2004 — President Pervez Musharraf yesterday called upon the country’s clerics and Islamic scholars to launch a nationwide movement to rid the country of terrorism and extremism.

“We should launch a movement against terrorism and extremism at national and provincial levels,” Musharraf said at a daylong convention of some 2,000 religious scholars and clerics from across the country.

Officials said this was “the biggest gathering” of religious leaders held in the country so far. The convention has been convened to promote religious harmony and eradicate the twin menaces of terrorism and extremism from society, they said.

The participants, mostly bearded and turbaned, chanted slogans of “Allah-o-Akbar (God is the greatest)” and “Long live Islam” as Musharraf dressed in his military uniform started his speech.

He called upon the participants to promote unity and harmony and to root out sectarian violence.

“We are all Muslims and we should not indulge in highlighting differences between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. We should not try to impose our views on others,” he said.

Condemning religious militancy, he said: “Islam is a religion of peace, it preaches harmony and peaceful co-existence”. Violence between militants from the minority Shiite and majority Sunni communities has claimed thousands of lives across the country over the past decade.

He called upon the clerics and scholars to correct the image abroad that Pakistani society was dominated by conservative and extremist elements.

“There is an impression being given abroad that Pakistan is involved in terrorism in Afghanistan and was also instrumental in nuclear proliferation.

“The reality is totally opposite and we must take steps to remove this negative impression.”

Religious scholars should help the government in dealing with elements promoting violence, he said. Pakistan had to demonstrate it was a responsible nuclear state, he said adding, “it has not and will not indulge in proliferation”.

He said, “Terrorists who are in a small minority are defaming Islam”, besides causing anguish among the families of the victims.

Musharraf, who has been preaching moderation, escaped two assassination attempts on his life in December. A key US ally in the war against terrorism, the Pakistani leader has said the attacks on him, which took place in the nearby city of Rawalpindi, may have been ordered by Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network. Pakistan has arrested more than 500 Al-Qaeda suspects who fled Afghanistan in the wake of US led attacks that ousted the Taliban regime in late 2001. A majority of the suspects handed over to the United States are in a US detention center in Cuba.

He said no foreigner would be allowed to stay in Pakistan without legal documents and vowed that anyone trying to stir trouble in Afghanistan from this country would be dealt with firmly.

The president asked foreign militants fleeing from Afghanistan into the bordering tribal belt to “disarm and surrender” and offered assurances that they would not be handed over to any other country.