Pakistani top leadership has been urged to take immediate action against threat of " Talibanization" in the country's northwest regions, the DAWN newspaper reported Saturday, quoting a presentation made earlier at a top-level security meeting.

Pakistan's National Security Council (NSC), which met on June 4, held "exhaustive" discussions on Talibanization in Federally- Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA), a semi-autonomous belt comprising seven tribal regions on the Afghan-Pakistani border, and North West Frontier Province (NWFP), according to DAWN.

The 15-page presentation, made to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who chaired the NSC meeting, reportedly said the regrouped and reorganized Taliban brought about serious repercussions for Pakistan, calling for an immediate action before it is too late.

The NSC was reportedly told that militancy and extremism had risen with an increase in the number of suicide attacks in the tribal areas and there was unhindered movement of militants to the adjoining areas,

The peace agreement, reached by the authorities and tribal elders in North Waziristan region, part of FATA, was holding, but it remained "fragile" with Mirali, a sub-district of the region, emerging as the hub of militant activities, said the report.

The situation in the Kurram tribal region remained "precarious" because of sectarian clashes and it had also become a major transit point for cross-border movement into Afghanistan, it said.

In Mohmand and Orakzai, two relatively peaceful regions among the seven component units of FATA, there were signs of increasing militancy as well, it added.

The presentation at the NSC meeting also said that in settled areas of NWFP, there were also rising militancy in the shape of suicide attacks, harassment of NGOs, bombings of barber and video shops, threats to religious minorities, girls schools and politicians and attacks on law-enforcement personnel, DAWN reported.

Pakistan, which has sent some 90,000 troops to the tribal areas to stop militancy and cross-border movement of fighters since 2001, is facing challenges of continuous bombings and attacks by militants in FATA and NWFP.

Besides, hard-line religious persons were also active in many parts of the country, warning people against beard-shaving or music shops opening, even in the capital city of Islamabad.

Source: Xinhua