FRONTLINE PAKISTAN: THE STRUGGLE WITH MILITANT ISLAM.
Publisher: I.B. TAURIS
Published: 2007
Place of publication: LONDON
Language: und; eng
Number of pages: 220
Description: Pakistan has been home to the world's most dangerous terrorists. Osama Bin Laden himself is believed to be hiding close to its border. After 9/11, Pakistan's military leader, General Pervez Musharraf, took an astonishing about-turn, and pledged his support for America's 'War on terror'. But as veteran Pakistani journalist Zahid Hussain reveals in this compelling book, Musharraf's new position is not as straightforward as it seems. Hussain describes in detail the incestuous relationship between Pakistan's jihadis and its all-powerful military intelligence agency, the ISI. In the 1980s, the ISI exploited the fanaticism of jihadi warriors to fight Pakistan's proxy wars for it in Afghanistan, and later in Kashmir. In pursuing this strategy, the military acted as midwife to the birth of a murderous jihadi culture which went on to consume it. Based on exclusive interviews with key players, Hussain reveals how Musharraf took the momentous decision to support America's war against the Taliban, whom Pakistani intelligence had helped to power in the first place. He also describes the blowback unleashed by the jihadis when their former allies turned on them. Musharraf, Hussain demonstrates, is living on borrowed time. Hussain uses his unique access to penetrate the jihadi networks, and to probe their operations, sources of funding, and relationships with transnational groups like Al Qaeda. He traverses the treacherous mountain passes of Waziristan, the officers' mess tables in Rawalpindi an the sectarian madrassas of the Punjab to explore what challenges Musharraf faces, and investigate whether he has the power (or political will) to prevail. With a resurgent Taliban inviting US airstrikes on Pakistan's Afghan border, the impossible contradictions of Musharraf's position have intensified. The outcome of Pakistan's struggle with radical Islam will have grave implications not only for the ideological climate of the Middle East, but for security of the world.--Jacket.