Extremism will be put down with firm hand: Mush

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday said rising extremism and suicide attacks in the country will not be tolerated and will be put down with a firm hand, a day after a bomber blew himself up inside a federal minister's house killing four in Peshawar.

Musharraf made this assertion while chairing a crucial meeting of the corps commanders of the Pakistan Army at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, Dawn News channel reported.

Besides the imposition of emergency last week, the meeting will review the internal security situation, particularly steps to counter an increase in militant activities in the Swat valley in the North West Frontier Province and tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

The meeting is also expected to discuss Musharraf's plan to quit the post of army chief before taking oath for a second presidential term.

The top army commanders were meeting a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up in the home in Peshawar of Federal Minister Amir Muqam, killing four persons, including the minister's brother.

Security forces have also suffered major reverses in the Swat valley, where the armed followers of pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah are controlling most villages and towns in the region.

Hundreds of policemen and paramilitary personnel have surrendered without fighting to the militants in recent weeks.

There were several major suicide attacks before the Emergency was imposed on November 3. Nearly 140 people were killed and hundreds injured in a suicide attack on former premier Benazir Bhutto's homecoming rally in Karachi on October 19.