NEW YORK, Dec 21: In the aftermath of attack on the Indian Parliament and its failure to capture Osama bin Laden the United States has increased political pressure on Gen Pervez Musharraf to clamp down on extremist groups operating in Pakistan.
Quoting Pakistanis with close links to Musharraf government the New York Times said: “By adding two more Pakistan-based groups to Washington’s terrorism list, President Bush has sharply increased political pressures that have gripped Gen Pervez Musharraf, ever since the Sept 11 attacks.”
The paper said in naming one of the groups, Ummah Tameer-i- Nau, Mr Bush said it had provided information on nuclear weapons technology to Osama’s Al-Qaeda group, a charge Pakistan has insistently denied since the issue first arose in October.
The second group, Lashkar-i-Taiba, accused of involvement in last week’s attack on the Indian Parliament, is the most powerful of the Pakistan-based groups fighting Indian forces in the disputed territory of Kashmir.
The NYT says that with his latest actions, particularly naming Lashkar-i-Taiba as a terrorist group, Bush appears to be pushing the Pakistani leader toward even greater political hazards. Kashmir is a far more sensitive issue for most of Pakistan’s 140 million Muslims than the fate of the Taliban.
“What Bush is demanding now is that Musharraf make the biggest U-turn yet,” a former official with close links to the government said.
The paper observed that Mr Bush appears to have sided with India, and has told Pakistan that any further backing for armed Islamic militant groups operating in Kashmir will be tantamount to supporting terrorism.
In effect, the paper said Gen Musharraf appears to have been told that Pakistan, after more than 50 years of battling India over Kashmir, must now abandon the armed struggle there, and rely henceforth on political means of confronting India. The question now is whether the General will comply, and whether he can carry Pakistan’s masses with him if he does.
“It places the General in an even more difficult position than he was in after Sept 11,” the paper said.
Senior Pakistan officials said Mr Bush, with the blunt wording of Thursday’s announcement, was accusing Mr Musharraf of lying in his government’s repeated statements that the group was involved in the relief work in Afghanistan and had nothing to do with nuclear weapons.