Pakistan to Expel Foreign Students in Crackdown

General Pervez Musharraf pledged to expel an estimated 1,400 foreign students from Pakistan's Islamic schools and arrest extremist leaders as part of a crackdown on militant groups.

The tangled web of jihadi groups has come under scrutiny since revelations that two of the London bombers visited radical madrasas during a trip to Pakistan last winter. In the past week police have arrested more than 600 suspected Islamist extremists.

Yesterday the military leader promised to act against the "bigwigs" of their organisations. All foreign students would be ordered to leave the madrasas.

"We will not issue visas to such people," he said, adding that British intelligence has provided more than 100 phone numbers that were proving "useful to the probe".

Mr Musharraf must overcome scepticism that he is serious about tackling Pakistan's militant nexus - something he has repeatedly promised but failed to deliver since 2001.

Previous sweeps have sent militants scurrying into the woodwork only to re-emerge unscathed months later and resume business as usual.

"They are just cosmetic measures designed to please the west," said Amir Mir, author of a recent book on jihadi networks.

Analysts and diplomats believe he is reluctant to entirely dismantle the militant groups because their activities in Kashmir provide useful leverage in peace talks with India.

But western agencies worry that some extremists fighting in Kashmir, hateful of the US and disillusioned with Gen Musharraf, are turning to al-Qaida.

British attention has partly focused on Jamaat-ud Dawa, an Islamic charity that runs a madrasa near Lahore that suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer allegedly visited.

Widely seen as a cover group for the militant group Lashkar-i-Taiba, Jamaat presents itself as a relief agency that conducts jihad through good works and not guns. About 115 of its activists were arrested this week under anti-terrorist laws.

Islamabad's policy worries the west because of the Kashmir groups' growing ties with international militancy.

Abu Faraj Al Libbi, the al-Qaida No 3 arrested in northern Pakistan last May, reportedly sub-contracted a December 2003 assassination attempt on Gen Musharraf's life to militants from the Jaish-i-Mohammad group.

Two militants quoted in a New York Times report this week claimed they saw Tanweer training at a Jaish-i-Mohammad camp in a forest north of Islamabad.