Author: Steven Gutkin, Associated
Press Writer
Publication: The Associated Press
Date: September 14, 2001
Islamabad, Pakistan - If he cooperates
with Washington, he risks the wrath of Islamic fundamentalists. If he doesn't,
he risks the fury of Washington.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf
faces a dilemma in what could be a major U.S. assault on neighboring Afghanistan
and the suspected terrorists it harbors.
Pakistan asked for more time Friday
to consider Washington's requests in the wake of this week's terror attacks
in the United States. That reportedly included a request to use Pakistani
air space in the event of an attack on Afghanistan, and the closure of
the Pakistani- Afghan border.
Militants on Friday threatened "jihad,"
or holy war, if Musharraf caved in to U.S. demands.
Some liberals urged the government
to place itself squarely on Washington's side.
But in its editorial Friday, The
News daily recalled Pakistan's Cold War alliance with the United States,
which it said helped plunge the country into chaos by bolstering banditry
and religious radicalism. The United States allied itself with many religious
militants in the region while trying to drive the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan
in the 1980s.
"Participating in any U.S. operation
will be just as hazardous as not participating in it," the editorial said.
Since taking office in a bloodless
coup nearly two years ago, Musharraf has performed a balancing act between
seeking to modernize his poverty-stricken nation of 140 million people
and keeping the fundamentalists at bay.
Pakistan has maintained close ties
to Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia, which is accused of sheltering
terrorists who might be behind this week's terror attacks, the worst in
U.S. history. Those relations have strained ties with Washington but earned
Pakistan a measure of security on its western border.
For now, Musharraf has pledged full
cooperation with Washington.
"Pakistan ... will assist in the
eradication of terrorism," Gen. Rashid Quereshi, Musharraf's chief spokesman,
told The Associated Press.
Responsibility for the attacks has
not yet been established. But U.S. officials, including Secretary of State
Colin Powell, say the prime suspect is Osama bin Laden, a Saudi exile hiding
out in Afghanistan.
A major U.S. attack on Afghanistan
would likely place heavy burdens on Pakistan, which could be called upon
to provide air and ground space and to share the intelligence it has collected
on both bin Laden and the Taliban.
On Friday, a senior U.S. official
speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed that the Bush administration
is asking Pakistan for permission to fly through its territory if airstrikes
are ordered against Afghan targets.
The official also said Washington
has asked Pakistan to close its 1,560-mile border with Afghanistan, presumably
to prevent bin Laden's operatives from leaving.
A top Pakistani official said Friday
that Pakistan has asked the United States for time to consider its demands.
Musharraf met with his military high command Friday to discuss Pakistan's
options, though details of that meeting were sketchy.
"In the mood they are in, the Americans
are not going to indulge fence sitters," former Pakistani senator Shafqat
Mahmood wrote in a newspaper column Friday.
The potential price of cooperating
with Washington was illustrated during Sabbath prayers at mosques throughout
Pakistan on Friday.
The terror attacks were "punishment
from God for what the Americans have done to Muslims," prayer leader Maulana
Abdul Aziz said from a pulpit in the capital of Islamabad.
"We will join the jihad against
the West if the Americans dare attack Afghanistan," said Muslim cleric
Hasan Jan in Peshawar, a city on the Afghan border. Hundreds of his followers
responded with chants of "Jihad! Jihad!"
"We shall be on the streets. We
will be shouting against Americans and the whole Muslim world will be shouting
against Americans" if Pakistan caves in to Washington, said Munawwar Hassan,
General Secretary of the Muslim Party Jamaat-e-Islami.
History has shown that fundamentalist
threats against Americans in Pakistan are not hollow.
In 1979, protesters burned down
the U.S. Embassy here following the takeover of holy sites in Saudi Arabia
by Muslim dissidents. In 1989, demonstrators attacked U.S. offices in Islamabad
during a protest against author Salman Rushdie's "Satanic Verses."
