Pakistan and Islamic Militancy in South Asia by Syed Ramsey

Author:Syed Ramsey [Ramsey, Syed]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Alpha Editions
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The trigger for the eventual showdown between the army chief and the Prime Minister came in May 1999, following Sharif’s peace talks with India, at which point Musharraf decided to revive the faltering campaign in Kashmir without telling the Prime Minister. The Pakistani army sent in soldiers to occupy Indian positions in the Kargil peaks, which the Indian army traditionally vacated during winter. The move led to a stand-off with India, and a terrified Sharif had almost begged President Clinton to mediate. He was forced to make a humiliating climbdown, which provoked an inevitable backlash from militants at home. By the time he tried to reassert himself by sacking Musharraf in October, it was already clear that it was, as it had always been, the radical military, not the elected government, who was in the driving seat in Pakistan.

On the morning of 11 September 2001, Lt.-General Mahmood Ahmed, the chief of the ISI, was at a breakfast meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington with Senator Bob Graham and Congressman Porter Goss, the chairmen of the Senate and House Intelligence committees. Also present there were Senator John Kyle and Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington, Maleeha Lodhi. As they talked about terrorism, specifically about bin Laden, a member of Senator Graham’s staff informed them about the planes hitting the World Trade Center. The meeting continued until one plane was reported heading towards Capitol Hill and evacuation was ordered. General Mahmood expressed his deep sympathy to the people of the USA before the five hurriedly dispersed. General Mahmood had been due to return that evening after completing his week-long official visit to Washington, but his departure was delayed as all the airports were closed after the terrorist attacks. He had arrived in Washington on 4 September on the invitation of the CIA chief for routine consultations with senior US officials. The CIA and the ISI, erstwhile partners in the covert war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s, had maintained close contact despite the low in the relations between Washington and Islamabad that had followed the USA’s nuclear-related sanctions on Pakistan in 1990.

It was General Mahmood’s second visit to Washington as the ISI chief. His previous trip in April 2000 followed President Clinton’s short stopover in Islamabad. The visit was arranged by the CIA with a view to cultivating Pakistan’s new chief spymaster. He was hugely pampered as the CIA officials tried to win his confidence. At the General’s request, the agency had arranged a private tour of Gettysburg, the venue of a crucial battle during the American Civil War in 1863. General Mahmood had a special interest in the battle of Gettysburg and had done his thesis on the subject at the National Defence College. He would talk endlessly on the tactics and other aspects of the battle. The CIA officials, however, were not sure whether all that effort won his cooperation. The trip went sour at the end when he received a dressing-down from Thomas Pickering, the US Under-Secretary of State, for helping the Taliban regime.

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