February 6, 2002	Wednesday	Ziqa’ad 22, 1422

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 5: The federal government will finalise on Wednesday a strategy to deal with about 2,000 Jihadi elements arrested four weeks ago, an official sources told Dawn.

A meeting convened by the interior ministry in this regard will be presided over by the interior secretary. The provincial home secretaries and the inspector generals of police will attend it with lists of the detained persons.

All those against whom nothing incriminating has been found would be released and those found involved in sectarian and terrorist crimes would be booked, an official said.

The provincial authorities have been directed to furnish complete record of the extremists detained in their provinces under the MPO.

The sources said that the provincial governments, through separate communications, had been seeking federal government’s guidance for tackling the issue.

The activists of the religious parties were hauled up four weeks ago following President Pervez Musharraf’s speech outlining the measures to curb extremism. They are so far detained under the MPO.

The provincial governments, source said, were in a fix over the legal implications. The legal experts are of the opinion that a person detained under the MPO cannot be kept in custody for more than 90 days.

If some of them approached the court, it would be difficult for the provincial governments to justify the detention without intimating them of offences for which they were arrested. So far non of them have approached the courts.

The sources said that the government has only the option of trying the detained persons under the amended anti-terrorism law, but for that it would need irrefutable evidence to implicate them in “terrorism” or “sectarianism”.

The ATA provides that anybody accused of terrorism, as defined in the Anti-Terrorism (amendment) Ordinance, 2002, can be awarded punishment varying from six month imprisonment to death.