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PAKISTAN: TUSSLE WITHIN

As the war drags on, the US discovers the perils of allying with a dictator who wants to appear a statesman abroad and a politician at home

By Shishir Gupta with Hasan Zaidi in Islamabad and Anil Padmanabhan in Washington

Four weeks into the war against terrorism, there are growing signs of frustration and concern in Washington DC over its inability to achieve a significant military breakthrough in Afghanistan. The bombing of terrorist territory may have begun on October 7 but there is no sign of Osama bin Laden or top Al Qaida cadre. Taliban leader Mullah Omar remains elusive. Finally, the formation of a viable political alternative to the Taliban appears far and distant.

American exasperation hasn't been helped by General Pervez Musharraf. The Pakistani President shot his mouth off on everything from the duration of the war to ceasing hostilities during Ramzan. American officials lost no time in contradicting their favourite dictator.

A week ago, General Tommie R. Franks, the US commander in the Afghanistan theatre, visited Islamabad. He was concerned at the quality of intelligence being provided by Pakistan. General Franks was apparently fairly blunt in his one-to-one meeting with Musharraf. Later he met the entire Pakistan military brass, including the air force and navy chiefs. Here he conveyed the US "request" for additional logistical support, including more air bases, for the second phase of the Afghan war.

The Americans are particularly alarmed at the killing of Abdul Haq, the former mujahideen commander. Haq was in Afghanistan on a CIA-backed mission to divide the Taliban but was supposedly betrayed (see box) by rogue elements in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

To offset doubts about both his commitment as an ally and his grip on his country, Musharraf issued a strong statement at the conclusion of General Franks' visit. "Who is the head of the Pashtoons?" he said to Reuters Television. "Not the Taliban. It is a very calculated remark that I am making." The general was obviously hinting at a split in the Taliban ranks to allay western worries.

Actually, he need not have bothered. Despite some voices to the contrary, the broad US perception is that the General himself is supportive of the war effort. In the words of Dennis Kux, former US ambassador to Pakistan, "Musharraf is a case of 'what you see is what you get'. Fairly straightforward."

FAITH IN SOLIDARITY: Armed Pakistanis on their way to the Afghan frontier to fight against the US. Almost 5,000 men have gathered at the Temergarah village on the border.

The leaks and disinformation are blamed on Taliban sympathisers lower down in the Pakistan Army and the ISI. The intelligence agency is a convenient villain. News reports from Washington have even charged the intelligence agency-once described as "a state within a state"-with using Al Qaida camps in Afghanistan to train "covert operatives for use in the war of terror against India".

The immediate worries for Washington are the porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border, protests in the streets of Pakistan and fear of nuclear weapons falling into terrorist hands (see box). The Durand Line which divides Pakistan and Afghanistan has become a lifeline for the Taliban. There are regular reports of men and material making their way to Mullah Omar's militia. Pakistani cleric Sufi Mohammed confirmed that 10,000 armed tribesmen-ethnic cousins of the Afghan Pashtoons-are gathered in the Malakant Agency of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), ready to fight in the defence of Kabul.

The capture of the Chilas airstrip in Pakistan by Pashtoon tribesmen recently was meant to prevent the US from launching helicopter operations. The blocking of the strategic Karakoram highway by NWFP tribals for five days was another demonstration of Pashtoon power to the West.

If that were not enough, US helicopters taking off from the Dal Bandin air base in Baluchistan were fired upon. Information about a commando raid on Kandahar, the Taliban stronghold in south Afghanistan, was leaked. Fighting a war out of Pakistan has put the US in the line of a strange variant of friendly fire.

Being hypersensitive to Musharraf has also meant Washington hasn't been able to decide a clear-cut role for the Northern Alliance. The chief anti-Taliban grouping in Afghanistan, the Alliance controls 10 per cent of the country's territory. In a conventional war, the US would simply have backed its enemy's enemy and dealt with the consequences later.

In this war, however, the US has been unable to shrug off Pakistan's concerns about the role of the Northern Alliance. Islamabad tried to convince Washington about faultlines within the Alliance by projecting differences between Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, Tajik commander Fahim Khan and the Northern Alliance's Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. Any wholehearted support to the Alliance, Pakistan warned, would also consolidate the Pashtoons against America. The US is also pinning hopes on mujahideen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, another Pashtoon, who is currently in Iran.

The US was not totally convinced by the Pakistani logic. It went ahead with a $50 million aid package to Dostum. It wants the Uzbek veteran to wrest the strategic town of Mazar-e-Sharif in north Afghanistan and help US ground operations. Since Dostum does not have access to a land corridor for refurbishing military supplies, the attack on Mazar-e-Sharif has still not happened.

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