ISLAMABAD, 24 March 2004 — President Pervez Musharraf called on Pakistan to continue to root out terrorism yesterday as the country observed its national day and an operation to hunt down Al-Qaeda loyalists continued.
For the second year in a row, a traditional military parade displaying the country’s military might, including heavy weaponry and nuclear-tipped missiles, was canceled for reasons of cost.
However, Musharraf did perform an investiture ceremony to decorate military officers and personnel, some posthumously.
The current chief of the country’s nuclear program, Samar Mubarakmand, was among the prominent personalities recognized for services to the nation.
One of his predecessors, Abdul Qadeer Khan, recently admitted selling nuclear secrets abroad.
Pakistan Day commemorates a declaration made on March 23, 1940, which led to the creation of Pakistan in 1947.
“I ... urge all Pakistanis to remain steadfast and united to achieve the ideals and aspirations for which our country was created,” Muharraf said in a statement to the nation.
“As we commemorate this day we have to remember that the struggle must go on, particularly against those forces that aim to deflect us from our cherished goal of making Pakistan a modern and progressive Islamic welfare state.”
Rallies and seminars were held across the country during the public holiday to remember Pakistan’s founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the struggle for a Muslim homeland in the postcolonial subcontinent.
Thousands of Pakistani troops are currently engaged in the country’s largest offensive against Al-Qaeda-linked militants in border regions near Afghanistan, sparking fury from local tribes and Islamist groups.
Pakistan has arrested more than 500 Al-Qaeda suspects since joining the US-led war on terrorism in late 2001. It has been rocked by a series of terrorist attacks in the same period.
Meanwhile, Pakistani tribal elders tried again yesterday to persuade Al-Qaeda fighters and their tribal allies to surrender and end the bloody confrontation.
Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in another tribal area near the Khyber Pass to demand an end to the operation against militants. The protesters, many brandishing automatic rifles, also denounced the killing of Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin by Israeli forces.
In South Waziristan, tribal elders met representatives of the rebels for a second day on Monday and presented government demands, including the surrender of the gunmen.
“We are quite optimistic that there will be some positive development today,” elder Waris Khan Afridi told Reuters before their departure. The army says it has hundreds of militants and their Pakistani tribal allies surrounded in a pocket of rugged territory near the Afghan border.
The battle, involving 5,000 troops, is the biggest Pakistan has ever waged in its semiautonomous tribal area and is part of a major push to sweep foreign militants from the border region and catch Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.
