Militants running a parallel state in Pakistan: Benazir

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has sought help of British parliamentarians for restoration of democracy in Pakistan, saying it was fast slipping into the hands of militants.

London, July 25 : Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has sought help of British parliamentarians for restoration of democracy in Pakistan, saying it was fast slipping into the hands of militants.

Militants have evolved a "parallel state structure" in the country, which was a threat not only to Pakistan, but also for London and Madrid, Benazir said.

She claimed that radical Muslims operating from the Lal Masjid had planned to replace "dictatorship" in Pakistan with "theocracy", and added that they had been being allowed to dump weapons inside the mosque.

She blamed President Pervez Musharraf for using the "Islamisation card", and said these radical elements were getting a lot of money that was being used to recruit foot soldiers to carry out their violent activities and promote terrorism across the globe.

Meanwhile, in an article published in The Guardian here, Bhutto blasted the CIA-ISI alliance during 1980s for converting Pakistan into a violent society of Kalashnikovs, heroin users and radicalisation of Islam.

The News quoted her as saying, that the political madrassas did house, clothe and feed the children but they also provided the poison of hatred as well as turned the places of religious worship into a cover for training militants and promoting terror.

Bhutto said that democracy has never been given a chance to grow in Pakistan.

"Today the crisis has not only continued but it has dangerously accelerated, not only in Pakistan but for the whole region and the wider world community," Bhutto added.

"Military dictatorship born from the power of the gun undermines the concept of the rule of law and gives birth to a culture of weapons, violence and intolerance," she said.

ANI