Islamabad, Oct 04: Warning that Pakistan faced more of an internal threat than from external forces, President Pervez Musharraf said the country may be "pulled down" by religious and sectarian extremists and vowed to prevent such an danger by stepping up raids on militants. "There is no external threat which can do any harm to us. We are capable of handling any external thereat. The enemy lies within and this element of religious and sectarianism, which may pull us down," Musharraf said in a hard-hitting speech last night at an annual dinner of all Pakistan Textile Mills Association here.
His remarks came after seven minority Shia Muslims were killed and several injured when gunmen fired at their bus in Karachi yesterday afternoon while they were on their way to Friday prayers. Police believe that the attack was carried out by banned Sunni extremist outfit, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

Stating that religious extremists posed a serious threat to Pakistan, he said as their acts "impact on us internally and impact our reputation externally. That is the area, which we have to guard against".
"We have been hijacked by unenlightened exponents of the religion. The vast majority is a silent majority is a silent majority. We will not allow this country to be used and misused by extremists-international extremists," Musharraf added.
His criticism of religious extremists also came a day before the arrival of US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca to Pakistan.
Hinting at a major crackdown, similar to the one carried out by large contingents of Pakistan Army against al-Qaeda militants in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan two days ago, Musharraf said such raids would continue in every two-three days. Eight al-Qaeda militants were killed and 18 captured in the raids.
"We have created an intelligence set up and there is a special operations task force on ground, which is a fully mobile and a quick reaction force. You have seen what they did. This is first action they did and I will make sure that every second or third day we will do the same," the President added.
"There will be no extremists in Pakistan. Pakistan is an Islamic country, it will remain an Islamic country and no law can be enacted here which is against the teachings of the holy Qur'an and the Sunnah," he claimed.
On the economic front, Musharraf called for mutual efforts to make Pakistan an economically vibrant and progressive Islamic country.
"We have to work together for a brighter future of the nation, attaining economic prosperity is within our grasp, let us combine our efforts to maintain the required economic strength, which we can, for the benefit of our nation and our future generations," he said.
On democracy, he claimed the "personalised agenda" of few people should not affect the efforts of running a balanced, mature and sustainable democracy, while indirectly attacking former Prime Ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif.
Bureau Report