Over the years there has been a steady rise in the number of militias in Pakistan — operating on their own or as part of established political parties. They have shared and different views on how a society must be run. Mostly they are guided by their own interpretation of Shariah, jihad, morality, infidel, the enemy etc. US policies in Iraq and Palestine and highly irresponsible acts like that of the British government conferring a knighthood on the most controversial man in the Muslim world help fuel the anger and violence of such groups.

Militias have also emerged from established political parties like the MQM to repeatedly challenge the authority of the state.

In short, the Pakistani state is facing different challenges to its authority. They range from the tribal areas to Balochistan and from the heart of the capital to the urban areas of NWFP.

All those who resist the writ of the state use force and violence but their motives differ. In Balochistan, while some groups may have taken extreme steps, at the core there is a political struggle for provincial autonomy and reallocation of resources. In Karachi, the MQM, the Musharraf government’s ally, has used muscle power to clobber its opponents.

It is in NWFP that the writ of the state is challenged by groups who believe that enforcing Shariah is necessary to root out what they regard as crimes and evil from society. Repeatedly these groups, armed and unarmed, have played the role of law-enforcing agencies by demanding closure of shops, television cables, girls schools etc.

In the heart of Islamabad, self-appointed guardians of societal morality, the students of two madrasas, have aggressively begun to implement their version of Shariah. By any definition of law, these students have kidnapped individuals - men, women and children. Victims include Pakistanis and foreigners. They claim they have done so to stop the spread of un-Islamic ways. In retaliation for the arrest of some students by the Islamabad police, the militant students kidnapped three policemen. Earlier the women students occupied the government-owned building of the Children’s Library. When they set up a Shariah court they declared the Minister of Tourism Nilofar Bakhtiar’s marriage annulled for hugging a man, apparently her para-jumping instructor, after completing a jump in France. Pakistani newspapers had earlier carried a photograph showing Bakhtiar hugging the man.

Initially the government did the right thing in not moving against them with the full use of force. It opted, instead, to engage with these students, men and women, who are kidnapping Pakistani and non-Pakistani citizens. But long drawn-out negotiations have only emboldened the students. They are stepping up their “cleansing” operations.

True, the students have genuine complaints against the authorities but they have rejected the legal route to have them redressed. Instead they have taken law in their own hands. This cannot be acceptable to any state. That is a recipe for greater chaos.

President Musharraf acknowledged this state of affairs on June 25. Speaking to the participants of the National Internship Program at the Governors’ House in Peshawar, the president said, “I know majority of the people are against these elements and want to purge the country of the scourge of extremism...We are all Muslims and these people have no right to categorize the people as good and bad Muslim. Religion and belief is a matter between Allah and his creatures and no one has the right to cast aspersions on beliefs of others.”

But his words count for little. In the heart of the capital the students move around so freely to carry their “cleansing operations.” After all when the two dozen women and men piled up in cars and left the madrasas were there no policeman present outside the madrasas? Why didn’t they follow them to see where they were headed? Many other questions regarding how the madrasa students were able to get armed, how they are able to move around freely, and how they were able to procure sand bags to defend themselves against an imminent police operation remain to be answered.

Whatever the grievances of the madrasa students and their supporters or detractors, it is time those who wield state power acted seriously to undermine the ability of some students to repeatedly challenge the writ of the state. Preferably the authorities must opt for the use of nonlethal methods against such elements. There is no dearth of such nonconventional methods. The important thing is for the state to reassert its authority.

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