ISLAMABAD, July 20: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Wednesday said that the ongoing campaign against extremist elements was part of the fight against terrorism and in the national interest which would ensure peace in the country.

Talking to newsmen at the Prime Minister’s House, he said the crackdown was not launched to please any country or on the directives of any country. Pakistan is an independent country that took decisions without any foreign interference, he added.

“We know what is in the interest of our country,” he said.

Mr Aziz said the main aim of the ongoing crackdown was to improve the law and order situation in the country so that people could live peacefully.

In reply to a question, he said the arrest of extremist elements was not against any specific segment of society or seminaries.

Madressahs, he emphasized, were playing a very effective role in promoting education, especially religious education, therefore the government could not think of launching any campaign against them.

The prime minister said the campaign was only against those elements who were creating sectarianism and spreading extremism. He urged seminaries to promote brotherhood, tolerance and harmony so that extremist elements could be discouraged.

Earlier, he met President General Pervez Musharraf for the second time in two days to discuss the fresh swoop on Islamic clerics and seminaries in the country, sources told Dawn.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao also attended the meeting and apprised the two of the overall law and order situation and the results of the countrywide crackdown against banned outfits and seminaries.

The minister informed the president that the crackdown will continue and be intensified to arrest those involved in spreading religious hatred, publishing of hate material, collecting donations for banned outfits and sheltering suspected militants.

The president and the prime minister were informed that Inspector General of Police Islamabad Talat Mehmood Tariq, Senior Superintendent of Police Islamabad Liaquat Ali Khan and superintendent of police headquarters Dr Sultan Azam Temoori had been transferred and asked to report to the interior ministry for mishandling the situation during operation against seminaries.

The meeting was informed that Maulana Ali Sher Haideri, chief of Millat-i-Islamia previously known as Sippah-i-Sahaba Pakistan, had also been arrested.

Police have registered cases against 17 people in Islamabad under 3MPO, a law concerning the maintenance of police order.

The sources revealed that the UK high commissioner, Mark Layll Grant, visited the interior ministry and met senior officials.