Chapter 3 continues…

ARMY AND THE WAR ON TERROR

Although the West in general turned a blind eye to these alliances and activities, the 9/11 attacks changed the equation. General Musharraf was in charge in Islamabad. Pakistan and its support for terrorist groups came under intense glare and scrutiny from the international community.

This compelled the army not only to side with the US in its ‘Global War on Terror’ but also to target its former allies and proxies in Afghanistan. Musharraf took the decision under tremendous pressure and opposition from within. But he did not order the army and ISI to disengage completely with the Taliban and other militant groups. Musharraf’s overt about-turn, at the insistence of the US, however, camouflaged the covert assistance to the Taliban and other militant groups.

Although Musharraf handed out select al Qaeda leaders to the US, he persuaded them to overlook the Taliban and other militant groups active in Pakistan. Some of the militant groups like Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) were asked to lie low and were compensated monetarily while support for the Taliban and the Haqqani Network became more covert.

Former US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, in his memoir released early 2014, stated that Musharraf not only refused to take action against the Taliban leadership but in fact facilitated the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. So even while his army was fighting with the American forces against al Qaeda, a part of the force was busy helping the fleeing al Qaeda and Taliban leadership to find shelter in Karachi, Peshawar and Abbottabad. The fact that al Qaeda chief, Osama bin Laden, was finally traced to Abbottabad in May 2011 indicates the extent of this complicity.

To be continued…