Musharraf needs to make good on his pledge...

Somebody has to put some pressure on Musharraf to expel these students - but then just how scared is Musharraf?

Radical clerics have ignored an edict to expel all foreign students from Pakistan’s madrassas, heightening fears that the Islamic schools will continue to be recruiting grounds for young Britons intent on pursuing jihad.

After the July 7 London bombings, in which three out of four suicide bombers were of Pakistani origin, President Pervez Musharraf pledged to the West that foreigners would be excluded from the schools.

Two of the bombers, Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammed Sidique Khan, are believed to have visited madrassas. Within three weeks of the atrocity, Gen Musharraf ordered all non-Pakistanis be expelled by the end of 2005. But he backed down in the subsequent battle of wills with Islamists and the deadline passed yesterday without the edict being enacted.