Pakistan: Bhutto warns of Islamic revolution

July 07


BERLIN: Exiled former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto warned of a looming Islamist revolution mounted from the country's religious schools, or madrassas, in a German magazine interview to be published today.Bhutto said she was planning her return to Pakistan this year to help stabilise the country in the face of the extremist threat.

"The Red Mosque was just a warm-up for what will happen if the religious schools are not disarmed," Bhutto told the newsweekly Focus.

She added that Islamist extremist leaders were plotting an overthrow of President Pervez Musharraf's government and had converted madrassas in Pakistani cities into military headquarters with well-stocked arsenals.