The Pakistani efforts to round up al Qaeda members is largely a defensive effort. Al Qaeda has been found organizing many of the suicide bombing and assassination attempts that have shocked the country in the past two years. Al Qaeda was long suspected as behind this terror campaign, but as more al Qaeda members are arrested and interrogated, the suspicions are confirmed. Al Qaeda has allied itself with Pakistani Islamic conservatives, just as they did in Afghanistan. But unlike Afghanistan, a majority of the Pakistani population do not want a religious dictatorship. A minority does, but the majority controls the police and army.