India’s new position of a frontline state against international terrorism is gathering pace, with increased vertical and horizontal cooperation building up between New Delhi and Washington.
According to sources, the Prime Minister AB Vajpayee will be speaking to the US President George Bush tomorrow.
The US' national security adviser, Condoleeza Rice called her Indian counterpart, Brajesh Mishra, early this morning, to brief the Indian leadership about the progress in the investigations. She Mw asked for intelligence and information support against terrorist networks, which India has extended. The first signs came late last night, when Indian intelligence agencies turned detailed documents an terrorist training camps over to US agencies. The US ambassador, Robert Blackwill met Jaswant Singh on Thursday to express 'appreciation of India's support, said an MEA spokesperson.
Mr Blackwill who was supposed to return to Washington for consultations, will remain here to work with the Indian government. But just as the consonance between India and the US picks up, Pakistan now runs the risk of ruining its relations not only with the US, but with virtually the entire western world. As retaliation against terrorism acquires a multilateral flavour, Pakistan's ambivalence on the subject of Osama bin Laden and terrorist camps is increasingly being viewed with disfavour.
According to Indian missions, who have been working overtime in the past week, Mr Musharraf has had to sustain a most unpleasant visit from the US ambassador Wendy Chamberlain. Ms Chamberlain reportedly informed him in no uncertain terms that US-Pakistan relations would be tested during this crisis. Mr Musharraf, who has held numerous meetings with his military commanders, is yet to spell out the exact nature of the “unstinted cooperation” that he has promised, though sources indicated that he may have little option but to accede to US demands.
The message from the US couldn't be clearer. According to official sources, the US deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage presented senior Pakistani officials in Washington with a fist of concrete steps the US expects Islamabad to take in their battle against terrorism.
The ISI chief, Gen Mahmud Ahmed is reportedly coordinating between the US administration and Pakistan government. According to sources, the demands include access to airspace, demand for Pakistan to dose its Afghan border, and cut off fuel supply to the Taliban as well as terrorist training camps.
Gen Musharraf's choices are nonexistent, though by executing the latter he risks an enormous backlash from jehadi groups. However, as analysts here see it, Mr Musharraf will try his best to wriggle out of this predicament with his familiar charade: Saying that Pakistani support to the US has to be tempered by the argument that if Pakistan allows US forces or aircraft to be based in the country against the Taliban, it might spark violence from within the Islamic militants within Pakistan; Also tested argument that the US would not want to rum Pakistan over to militant mullahs with control of nuclear weapons. If, on the other hand, there is no backlash any more than the uneasy calm that prevails now - Pakistan's argument that the jehadis are autonomous would be exposed.
It isn't as if the US is not aware
of this. According to government sources, the US secretary of state, Colin
Powell's conversations with other world leaders dearly articulated the
US scepticism about the nature of Pakistani support', since in previous
occasions Pakistan has divulged information to the US while simultaneously
letting the Taliban in on the secret.