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Assassination 'windfall' for
Musharraf
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - It was a Sunday evening,
with little traffic, so the task of the security
personnel assigned to clear the road between Islamabad
and its twin-city Rawalpindi for the convoy of President
General Pervez
Musharraf was made easier.
But something went
horribly wrong when, moments after the general's
motorcade passed over a bridge, a powerful bomb exploded
- initially estimated to contain 550 pounds of
explosives - and badly damaged the structure of the
bridge, but did not harm anyone.
Musharraf
subsequently made light of the incident, saying that
attempts on his life were an "occupational hazard". "I'm
not a superstitious man at all. But I've come to believe
in destiny," he said. "I can't hibernate. So I don't
care about it." He did add, though, that "al-Qaeda and
its local collaborators are at the front of a queue of
people who want to kill me".
Immediately after
the blast, the government's Press Information Department
sprang into action, running from one television channel
to the other and from one newspaper office to the other
trying to convince the staff that the "assassination
attempt" was even bigger news than the arrest of Saddam
Hussein, so the story should not be downplayed.
And in the days since the incident,
Inter-Services Public Relations and Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) have been only too willing to call
journalists to their offices for briefings, during which
they are urged to portray Pakistan as a country "under
siege by extremists" and told that a "new monster of
extremist" is about to rise.
Not everyone,
though, is as quick to make such judgments. A source
assigned to a "high strategic position" spoke to Asia
Times Online on condition of anonymity, and painted a
rather different picture. He confirmed that a number of
attempts had already been made on Musharraf's life as a
result of his post-September 11 policies in which he
abandoned support of the Taliban and threw in Pakistan's
lot with the United States in its "war on terrorism" and
the hunt for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda fugitives in
Pakistan.
Indeed, said the source, at least five
attempts have been made on Musharraf's life since he
came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, of which
three came from within the army. All of the attempts
were ill-planned and the suspects quickly rounded up.
Only one of these case has officially been made public,
that involving local jihadis.
As a result of
these attempts, and in the wake of a recent call by Dr
Ayman al-Zawahiri - the Egyptian ideologue and second in
command to Laden in al-Qaeda - for the people of
Pakistan to stand up against Musharraf, security
agencies have been placed on the highest alert.
Security arrangements
Attacks on
Musharraf by al-Qaeda were identified as most likely to
come in one of two ways: either by a suicide bomber, or
by the deployment of short-range missiles. Musharraf's
security plans were adjusted accordingly to take in
these scenarios. The plans already included water-tight
security for occurrences such as the more popular method
of planting bombs.
For his trips between the
capital Islamabad and nearby Rawalpindi, where army
headquarters and Musharraf's military residence are
housed, the general uses only the ring road, which
bypasses busier urban areas. Before the president's
motorcade sets out, security personnel are deployed
along the whole route to check for any suspicious
persons or vehicles, and then all people and vehicles
are cleared from the route.
And bridges receive
special security attention - using the latest equipment
- as they are obvious places for bombs to be planted.
These checks were redoubled after al-Zawahari's call to
the Pakistani people to rise up. As a further security
measure, Musharraf employs several identical convoys,
which speed off at slightly different times. Musharraf
himself only decides at the last minute in which one he
will ride. Helicopters are also used to keep a close eye
on the route.
Based on this information, the
security source who spoke to Asia Times Online is
adamant that the latest "assassination" attempt was in
fact carefully stage-managed by Musharraf's close staff
- and at his instigation.
Reasons
As
the year 2003 ran its course, the United States became
more convinced that as far as Pakistan was concerned,
al-Qaeda no longer remained a threat of any consequence
as its major lines of communication had been destroyed,
and only a few operators were left, and they were on the
run anyway.
As a result, the US changed its
priorities, but unlike in the past, Musharraf was
dictated to rather than consulted, and Pakistan's
strategic interests in Afghanistan and India, as well as
Musharraf's political interests at home, were largely
ignored.
Musharraf was warned in no uncertain
terms of the ISI's activities in the Pakistani tribal
belt, where it was active in aiding the regrouping of
the Taliban for their guerrilla war in Afghanistan. A US
diplomat in Pakistan also met with Musharraf and on
behalf of Washington produced video footage and precise
locations of where the ISI was giving Afghans military
training to wage jihad against the Afghan administration
of Hamid Karzai and US-led troops in that country.
As a result of this, an extensive joint
US-Pakistan operation was conducted in the tribal areas,
but it ended with no significant success as it appeared
that the suspects were tipped off in advance by the
Pakistan side.
At the same time, Musharraf was
given evidence of the ISI's activities in the Kashmir
region, as a result of which he was forced to close down
forward sections of the army in Pakistan-administered
Kashmir that had been lending support to militants for
cross-border raids into Indian Kashmir.
And a
few weeks ago, Musharraf was given another warning -
with complete details provided - of ISI-Taliban (or
pro-resistance) links, and asked to order another
operation in the tribal areas.
This pressure
from the US is compounded by opposition from the
hardline Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of
six religious parties that won unprecedented
representation in parliament in elections last year. In
its latest action, the MMA launched "Remove Musharraf"
protest marches on Thursday against Musharraf's U-turn
on Kashmir, the army's intervention in the tribal areas,
and his wearing the two caps of president and chief of
army staff.
Other developments are also of
concern to Musharraf:
About a week before his death earlier this month,
MMA president Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani attended a
luncheon meeting at the US vice-consul's residence in
Karachi, at which some other diplomats from Islamabad
were also present. Noorani apparently assured that the
MMA did not have any international agenda, and that its
campaign in the country was in the cause of democracy.
US diplomats in turn stated that the US wanted to see
more democracy in Pakistan.
US intelligence officials were initially given a
free hand in Pakistan to track down al-Qaeda members.
But now they are directly involved with domestic
politicians, and last week US Federal Bureau of
Investigation agents and their Pakistani counterparts
apprehended a former top official of Pakistan's atomic
installation at Kahota Research Laboratories. They were
apparently interrogated over possible involvement in
selling nuclear material to another country.
Recently, Musharraf was given a report on a German,
Italian, French, British and US intelligence "cartel"
that has been established to protect the strategic
interests of the respective countries in Afghanistan as
their troops are heavily threatened by Taliban attacks.
Diplomats of these countries apparently visited places
like Quetta on the border area and spoke to people
there. The move is seen in Islamabad as nothing short of
espionage.
Given all of these developments, the
Asia Times Online source argues that it was fair time to
pass on the message to Washington that extremists are
rampant once again in the country because of interfering
US policies. Musharraf "narrowly escaped" this attempt,
but perhaps he will not be so lucky the next time.
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication
policies.)
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