Killings challenge Musharraf's resolve

Shia Muslims mourn in Rawalpindi

By Susannah Price BBC correspondent in Pakistan

Recent killings in Pakistan pose questions for the Pakistani leader's fight against terrorism

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has faced two major challenges within the past week to his pledge made in January to crack down on Islamic extremism.

The authorities had previously expressed confidence that the Islamic militants responsible for kidnapping Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl would be tracked down and the journalist released.

Daniel Pearl's body has not been found

But those hopes were dashed by a video tape handed into the American consulate in Karachi last Thursday showing Mr Pearl had been brutally murdered.

And extremists from the majority Sunni community have been blamed for the killing of worshippers in a mosque in Rawalpindi on Tuesday evening.

The murders are a major set back for Pakistan's Government in its attempts to demonstrate to the international community that it can control the violence.

Wide praise

On 12 January, President Musharraf announced he was banning five militant groups and said he would not allow Pakistani territory to be used to promote terrorist activity anywhere in the world.

His speech was widely praised by the international community.

Musharraf must fight his war on several fronts

Some analysts believe Mr Pearl's kidnapping, which came less than two weeks later, was a direct response from the militant groups.

However it is not clear who exactly was behind it.

The demands of the kidnappers included the release of Pakistanis being detained by the Americans at Guantanamo Bay on suspicion of being members of the Taleban or the al-Qaeda network.

The group called itself the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani democracy - a previous unheard of name.

But it is thought those responsible were members of one or more extremist groups which had been fighting in Kashmir and Afghanistan.

The police arrested a prime suspect, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, known as Sheikh Omar, before the release of the video tape.

But he has not led them to the rest of those involved.

And while the police have released several names of other suspects, they have not made any further significant arrests since the tape's release.

The Dawn newspaper blamed the investigating agencies for failing to find the killers - and said only by tracking them down would the government show the world its determination to combat extremism and terror.

Sectarian killings

The killing of the worshippers from the minority Shia community brought the violence to the heart of the military establishment in Rawalpindi where the army has its headquarters.

There are close ties between some of the extremists who have been fighting in Kashmir and the sectarian groups

It was the first large scale act of sectarian violence since General Musharraf's speech in which he banned two sectarian groups although there have been individual murders of Shias in Karachi over the past month.

The murder followed a pattern seen in previous attacks against both Shias and Sunnis with unidentified gunmen opening fire at random in attacks which are seldom solved.

There are close ties between some of the extremists who have been fighting in Kashmir and the sectarian groups.

President Musharraf knows he will have to fight his war against extremism on several fronts.