PAKISTAN: University of the Punjab faces Taliban tactics

25 April 2010

A student group Islami Jamiat Talaba which has been terrorising the University of the Punjab, Pakistan's premier institution of higher learning with about 30,000 students, has help from a surprising source - national political leaders. They have given it free rein, because they sometimes make political alliances with its parent organisation Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's oldest and most powerful religious party, writes Sabrina Tavernise in The New York Times.

The university's plight encapsulates Pakistan's predicament: an intolerant, aggressive minority terrorises a more open-minded, peaceful majority, while an opportunistic political class dithers, benefiting from alliances with the aggressors.

The dynamic helps explain how the Taliban and other militant groups, though small and often unpopular minorities, retain their hold over large portions of Pakistani society.
Full story on the New York Times website

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