By IANS
Islamabad : Generally supportive of the military action carried out in and around Lal Masjid, the Pakistani media Wednesday expressed deep fears about a backlash from the militants and the religious conservatives that, it said, would bedevil the nation for long.
The English language media broadly agreed that having allowed "a state within the state" by the activities of Islamists and foreign fighters in a mosque in the heart of the capital, and having dilly-dallied in acting against them, the government was left with no choice but to take the military action to its logical conclusion.
Daily Times of Lahore, that last week compared the situation at Lal Masjid to "Operation Bluestar" against Sikh militants carried out at the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984 by the government of India, urging the Pakistan government to take "a difficult decision" and carried its argument further by recalling the 1999 hijacking of an Indian aircraft by militants to Kandahar.
India had no choice but to release the militants, since it could not engage in an operation in Afghanistan, it said.
But India "has not been able to forgive itself for its mistake", it noted, adding that the terrorists released by India, including Maulana Masood Azhar who found his way back to Karachi's Jamia Binoria, "went on to commit history's worst crimes".
The editorials were generally critical of a soft line and of politicians and clerics advocating a negotiated settlement.
"Those who advocated 'safe passage' for Mr Ghazi (the mosque's deputy cleric who died in the operation) and his terrorists wrongly believe, together with Imran Khan (cricketing legend-turned opposition lawmaker), that General Musharraf has 'unleashed an artificial war in Pakistan to please the Americans'," Daily Times said, adding: "Let us be clear. No government can violate the universal principle of 'no negotiation with terrorists' and live to be praised."
It cautioned: "The inmates of Lal Masjid will be lionised by some while the collateral damage in the shape of women and children killed will be pinned on the government as 'criminal neglect of the life of the common man'."
The News spoke of the state's involvement with religious bodies in its editorial. "Whatever has happened at Lal Masjid should also give some much-needed warning to the state to permanently disentangle and disengage itself from some of its affiliations and relationships of the past."
Warning against pandering to extreme religious sentiments, it said: "There is a danger that some of these may become rallying points for the cause of the extremists in the country but this is a route that the government now needs to pursue to its logical end. After all, tackling extremists head on is never an easy task anywhere, more so in Pakistan."
It also posed several questions about the operation and its consequences: "What of the reputation of the federal capital and the image of the country, with a pitched battle fought a stone's throw from many foreign embassies?
"And also, what will be the fallout of this bloody and violent end to the week-long siege of the Lal Masjid complex? Should the country brace itself for retaliatory attacks against government installations and security forces?"
It also asked: "How did so many hardened militants, reportedly some foreigners among them, make their way inside the compound situated in the heart of Islamabad?"
Of the "many lessons to the government", the News said, the "foremost is that militancy and extremism is best nipped in the bud and allowing it to fester actually ends up damaging the national interest.
"Also, the government needs to ask itself why it usually exhibits much less patience for moderate and progressive sections of society, especially when they can help in the fight against extremism. As for Pakistanis generally, Lal Masjid should make some of them think about where their nation is heading and whether the route is that intended by the founding fathers."