When Troubles Come, They Come Not as Single Spies...
...but in battalions.
A brace of articles on the Pakistan-Afghanistan al-Qaeda-Taliban nexus from Asia Times. Prospects of a 'united front' against Musharraf are particularly disturbing, since if Pakistan falls to a Taliban-style revolution or civil war, then the US, India and China may come to blows over what to do about it. And scary things are happening, such as a plague of child bombers. (Asia Times Online :: South Asia news - Suicide attackers with nothing to lose)
Asia Times Online :: South Asia news - Another stiff test for Musharraf
KARACHI - From the mountains of Pakistan's tribal areas to the capital Islamabad and up to the insurgent coastal belt of Balochistan province bordering Iran and Afghanistan, pan-Islamists are developing a united front ultimately to take on the West and its allies in the region.
The immediate target, though, is the administration of West-leaning President General Pervez Musharraf. Islamists of all hues are coming together. These include those believing in tribal traditions (the Islamic Emirates of the Waziristans and the Taliban of Afghanistan); global jihadis (al-Qaeda), proponents of Islamic democracy (the Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan and the newly organized United Islamic Front of Afghanistan), and madrassas (seminaries) led by the Lal Masjid (mosque) in Islamabad).
These groups plan to join hands next Tuesday in a mass sit-in protest in Islamabad against Musharraf.
Here is the author's assessment on Musharraf's options:
Musharraf has few choices. He can continue the impossible fight against Islamists, at the behest of Western forces, all the way from the mountains of the Waziristans to the southern port city of Karachi and the deep seas of Gwadar, or switch sides and make a major compromise that could eventually support the emergence of a green crescent in Southwest Asia.
The wily Musharraf, though, has survived many challenges to his rule since taking power in a coup in 1999.
The final article deals with the newly-joined battle in NWFP. Asia Times Online :: South Asia news - Pakistan crosses a dangerous boundary
