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COVER STORY: PAKISTAN
Islamic Backlash
The tensions of its sudden anti-Taliban stance
begin to tell on the Pakistani establishment as Musharraf sacks some of
the most powerful men in the land
By Shishir Gupta with Ishtiaq Ali Mehkri in Karachi
When Pakistan President
General Pervez Musharraf branded the recent bomb blast near the Jammu
and Kashmir Assembly a "terrorist act", it was a defining moment
for the man who till September 11 had righteously raved on about the "freedom
struggle" in the Indian state. The metamorphosis began hours earlier
on October 8 when the President removed Lt-General Mehmood Ahmed, the
powerful director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and
lt-general Muzaffar Hussain Usmani, the deputy chief of army staff, besides
clamping down on radical Islamic leaders. The packaging was impeccable
and the message to the international community clear: Musharraf is the
new moderate face of Pakistan. In a sense that is what the West wanted
to believe.
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FIERCE SUPPORT: Pro-Taliban elements in Karachi react violently
to Pakistan's supporting the US
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That the President was on an image overhaul was
evident during his October 8 press conference where he spoke of "astute
diplomacy" to pursue the Pakistani goal of installing a "friendly
government" in post-Taliban Afghanistan. And Islamabad's convergence
with Washington-despite the growing unrest in Sindh, Baluchistan and the
tribal areas in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) against the US
attacks on the Taliban-was justified on the grounds that the situation
had changed. He would be able to extract the maximum economic and political
benefits from the West, Musharraf assured the Pakistani people, if he
went against the Taliban. The end would justify the means and serve the
national interests of Pakistan.
While the US and the UK seem impressed by this
transformation, the Pakistani military ruler has ingeniously used the
Afghan war to strengthen his position, within and outside the army. Ahmed
and Usmani, whose sacking was portrayed as action against anti-US elements
in the army, are the men who had hinted opposition to Musharraf's taking
over as President before he embarked on his journey to Agra.
Two other generals-Lahore Corps Commander Mohammed
Aziz Khan and Chief of General Staff Mohammed Yousuf-were sidelined. Khan
was given the largely ceremonial designation of chairman, joint chiefs
of staff, while Yousuf was made vice-chief of army staff. In one stroke,
Musharraf neutralised his accomplices in the October 12, 1999, coup against
Nawaz Sharif that had brought him to power. These were also the very generals
who had engineered the Kargil war.
The fall of Ahmed was understandable and there
is credible evidence linking him with the terrorists involved in the New
York attacks. It is understood that Ahmed as ISI chief instructed Omar
Sheikh, a Harkat-ul-Mujahideen terrorist freed during the Indian Airlines
Kandahar hijacking, to send $1,00,000 to Mohammed Atta, who was involved
in the kamikaze attack on the World Trade Center. Sheikh, who now lives
near the Binori mosque in Karachi, was spotted in Islamabad at the time
the money was transferred to Atta. Ahmed's close proximity to Taliban
leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was also reflected in the fact that Musharraf
had sent him to Afghanistan for negotiations on the Osama bin Laden issue.
Intelligence inputs indicate that Ahmed did not convey the message "forcefully".
On the contrary he assured the Taliban that Pakistan would not cut diplomatic
ties with them. The accompanying clerics also advised the Taliban leaders
to not blink. The new DG(ISI) Lt-General Ehsan-ul-Haque, a former director-general
of military intelligence, has the image of being a moderate opposed to
the jehadi culture.
With Ahmed and Khan out of the way, there is
no challenge to Musharraf from within the Pakistan Army. In fact, Musharraf
has strengthened himself by appointing corps commanders of his choice
in the border cities of Peshawar and Quetta-the hotspots of current unrest.
Interestingly, Lt-General Abdul Qadir Baloch has been asked to oversee
military operations in Baluchistan, while Lt-General Ali Mohammed Jan
Aurakzai, an ethnic Pashtoon, has been asked to head the Peshawar Corps.
The commander of the key Rawalpindi Corps, responsible for Jammu and Kashmir,
has also been changed, and the navy chief, Admiral Abdul Aziz Mirza, has
been asked to toe the general's line. Admiral Mirza reportedly chose to
differ with Musharraf on supporting US strikes against the Taliban.
The large-scale reshuffle in the Pakistan military
establishment was accompanied by a clampdown on radical leaders such as
Fazlur Rehman of the Jamait-e-Ulema Islam (JUI), Harkat-ul-Mujahideen
chief Fazlur Rehman Khalil, founder and inspirator of Taliban Sami-ul-Haq
and Azam Tariq, leader of the virulently anti-Shia Sipah-e-Sahaba group.
These leaders were instrumental in the violent anti-US demonstrations
in Quetta, Karachi and Peshawar. They burned effigies of US President
George W. Bush and called for the downfall of the Musharraf Government.
By detaining these jehadi leaders, Musharraf signalled his resolve to
tackle radical extremism in Pakistan and distance Islamabad from the anti-US
venom spewed by these hardcore Islamists. In fact, anticipating the domestic
unrest, Islamabad moved two reserve brigades from the Indo-Pakistan borders
to quell disturbances in Karachi and Quetta.
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