Jihad alive and well in schools in Pakistan...

There's been a lot of depressing news coming out of Pakistan.

THE International Crisis Group has condemned President Pervez Musharraf's failure to curb Pakistan's extremist Islamic schools.
A report released yesterday by the group, headed by former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans, says promises made by General Musharraf in 2002 to reform madrassas, or religious schools, are "in shambles".

Focusing on the city of Karachi as a hotbed of radical madrassa activity that reflects the situation persisting across Pakistan, the ICG report says: "Banned sectarian and jihadi groups, supported by networks of mosques and madrassas, continue to operate openly, with consequences for internal stability and regional and international security."

Karachi's madrassas are "active centres of jihadi militancy and even those without direct links to violence promote an ideology that provides religious justification for such attacks".

The report adds: "The Pakistan Government has yet to take any of the overdue and necessary steps to control religious extremism in Karachi and the rest of the country. Musharraf's periodic declarations of tough action, given in response to international events and pressure, are invariably followed by retreat."