Pakistan anti-extremist sweep casts wide net

LAHORE, Pakistan -- He seemed certain, and he told his followers not to worry: This was lip service, another attempt at appeasing India and the international community.

"Nothing will happen," Abu Bakar assured supporters about President Pervez Musharraf's crackdown on Islamic militants. "They're criticizing us just for international consumption."

Days later, the Lahore commander of the militant Lashkar-e-Tayyaba organization sits in a cell at a police station in eastern Pakistan, worried that this time, alarmed by the threat of war, the government means business.

"Now, it seems, the action is serious," he said from his cell, according to colleagues who spoke to The Associated Press.

As part of a sweep ordered Saturday by Musharraf, authorities have rolled across Pakistan, climbing compound walls, breaking down doors and arresting men they say are Islamic militants.

1,957 arrests

Since Musharraf banned two anti-Indian groups and three other organizations, police have sealed 615 offices and arrested 1,957 suspects, authorities said Wednesday. India has demanded action to prevent terror attacks like the Dec. 13 assault on its Parliament, which New Delhi blames on militants operating from Pakistan.

In Lahore, the raids began at dawn Sunday -- many in well-to-do neighborhoods. Two dozen officers screamed up in vans, guided by a plainclothesman that detainees said was an intelligence agent.

In one neighborhood, authorities raided a house they say contained a secret office of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba. The banned group is fighting what it says is a jihad -- a holy war -- against Indian rule in disputed Kashmir.