Leaders of Pakistan's radical jihadi organisations have been touring Pakistan. "We will stop only at Srinagar," boasted one of the commanders. Another made a rather more ambitious announcement of annexing not only Kashmir but the whole of India.
But when the 'capitulation' finally came, most of the jihadi groups chose to relent. Only Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Pakistan's most influential religious party which also godfathers the Hizbul Mujahidin, called a million people to march in Lahore on 25 July. The event was to mark the beginning of a movement to throw out Nawaz Sharif who had committed "an unpardonable sin". However, the charged crowd that gathered outside the colonial building of Punjab Assembly in Lahore was a fraction of the target. More importantly, other than Hizbul Mujahidin, none of the other groups attended.
Organised along sectarian lines, other organisations appear deeply suspicious of the JI and its political ambitions. The Harkatul Mujahidin, formerly known as Harkatul Ansar, is so close to the Taliban that inside Afghanistan their militants are called the "Pakistani Taliban" and take an active part in that country's fratricidal warfare. Due to a Taliban offensive against the Northern Alliance within Afghanistan, it was perhaps not very feasible for the Harkatul to indulge itself in a clash with the Islamabad government. The organisation is already in the bad books of the government due to its links with the Sunni sectarian militant groups Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and Lashkar-e- Jhangvi.
Rather than initiating hostilities, Harkat's strategy at this point is to wait for the government to strike first. It fears that the government may move to restrain its activities on the behest of the US, which has declared it a terrorist organisation. Harkat's leaders made a not-so-indirect threat by declaring that they would call the Taliban to their aid when and if they felt the need for it.