President General Pervez Musharraf yesterday vowed to carry forward his mission of an enlightened and progressive Pakistan despite the threat posed by extremists and terrorists from within.
He was speaking at the inauguration of an educational centre at Taxila near here in the wake of a string of deadly suicide attacks in the North West Frontier Province following last week’s military operation against militants in the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad.
Musharraf said he was determined to realise the vision of the founder of the country, Quaid-e-Azam (great leader) Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
“The Quaid visualised this country as an enlightened, forward-looking and progressive country, and that is what we want to do,” he said.
Musharraf said the country was not facing any external threat and held that its armed forces were strong enough to deter any aggression.
He lamented that certain fringes of society were afflicted by the unfortunate tendency towards extremism that led to terrorism.
“Unfortunately, this minority of extremists are violent and aggressive, are prepared to kill and also prepared to die,” he said.
