America's General
Pakistan takes its most crucial decision since the 1971 war — to side with the US against the Taliban. The clerics may protest, but Musharraf has few options.

ECONOMIC IMPACT
Where Are We Going?
Fear and uncertainty stalk the Indian economy as early damages begin to show.

Ready For Battle
Where will the US strike, with what and how? A report on the military options before the global coalition that the Americans are building against terrorism.

Shifting Stance
Indian foreign policy is in a flux following the terrorist strikes in the US, metamorphosing in tandem with the tectonic shift in the geopolitical landscape of the world.

Menace In The Mind
People like bin Laden are not so much politicising religion as religionising politics.

COVER STORY: PAKISTAN

At Your Service, Sir

In a desperate move, President Musharraf agrees to help America in its war against Osama bin Laden. But the backlash from radical Islamists who endorse the Taliban and the Saudi fugitive may push Pakistan into another era of chaos.

— By Rory McCarthy in Islamabad

Whichever way Pakistan's General Pervez Musharraf looks these days there is nothing but trouble ahead. Days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the US, the military regime in Islamabad is caught in the biggest dilemma Pakistan has ever faced. As big, as the general frankly admitted over national television last week, as the 1971 war that split the country into two. One wrong step now and the country's future could be even more badly scarred.

	BACK TO THE WALL: General Musharraf (above); anti-American protestors in Karachi (below)

The choice had never been starker. On one side, the world's most powerful nation, wounded and angry, was bluntly telling the general that if he did not act as a friend now he would be considered the enemy. On the other were the leaders of the most brutish police state in the world and their hordes who threatened jehad against the very country that had nurtured them. If the general sided with the zealots, there was little doubt that the US would reduce Pakistan to another failed state as it did to Iraq. If he played ball with America, he could unleash an Islamic storm that would not only swamp him but also send Pakistan hurtling back to the Dark Ages.

It didn't take long for the general to make up his mind and choose what he termed "the lesser evil". Musharraf confirmed that Washington had asked Pakistan for intelligence on the Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the attack, apart from use of its air space and logistical support. He said Pakistan's nuclear assets were at risk unless the country cooperated. "I've fought two wars and I've faced many dangers. And by the grace of God I've never shown timidity," he said. "But we do not want to be foolish." Rifaat Hussain, head of defence and strategic studies at Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University, puts it more simply, "He recognised that Pakistan cannot afford to be on the wrong side of history."

Islamabad had earlier desperately tried to stave off making the choice. In the days after the attacks, Musharraf sent a secret delegation to Kabul to work out a compromise but it failed. Then last week he sent his closest ally, ISI chief Lt-General Mehmood Ahmed, to Kandahar to see Mullah Mohammad Omar, the reclusive, one-eyed supreme leader of the movement, and warn him to hand over bin Laden or face the wrath of America. He too came back empty-handed. Now the Taliban appears determined to pitch the country into a direct military confrontation with the US. It seems clear that an American attack will target not only the thin and greying 44-year-old bin Laden, the world's most wanted man, but also his hosts.

Pakistani military sources say Washington has so far made four basic requests, all of which the military regime has decided to accept. The US wants to see the ISI's files on bin Laden and the Taliban. It wants Islamabad to close the border with Afghanistan and halt the supply of fuel to the Taliban. The last request was the most sensitive: permission to use Pakistani airspace in the event of a military strike. Musharraf agreed and even this much is progress. When America last attacked bin Laden in August 1998, it did not ask permission before firing a salvo of 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles through Pakistani airspace into four terrorist training camps on the eastern Afghan border. Islamabad lodged the sternest protest. Bin Laden escaped unhurt into the desert.

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Living On The Edge