LONDON, Aug 9: President Pervez Musharraf said on Monday that Britain had been too lenient with radical clerics and advised it to clamp down on them after last month’s bomb attacks in London. Asked by the BBC in an interview if Britain had been too soft on radical clerics, President Musharraf said: “Yes I think so, absolutely. It should be stopped, nobody should be ... talking of hatred and militancy and aggression.
“That is not what the mosque is meant for. That should be stopped immediately.” A British official said on Monday that Britain was considering charging Muslim clerics with treason if they incited violence or praised suicide attacks.
This sparked criticism from some opposition politicians who argued treason laws were outdated and impractical. President Musharraf said he thought the July 7 and 21 bombings were possibly linked and supervised by the same mastermind.
“I am sure there must be a brain behind it,” he said. “The people were different and maybe the groups didn’t know each other, but the planner must be the same.”
He denied reported visits to Pakistan by at least two of the bombers had been pivotal to the attacks, referring to British statements that the attackers had been born in Britain or had lived in the country for many years.
“Even if they visited Pakistan and they contacted some extremists here, the reality is that they have been in the UK for 20 years,” he said.
“The indoctrination, the mindset did not change here. The mindset changed in the UK.”
