Within hours of the 9/11 attack, Pakistan took a U-turn on its Afghan policy, allied with the United States and became a frontline state in the ‘war on terror’. This sudden policy shift was major: from a close friend and ally, Taliban was now the enemy. The Pakistani government showed no reluctance to join the American war against Afghanistan’s Taliban government even though it was one of the three countries in the world that had recognised it. It showed even lesser reluctance in confronting al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden.

Three months and four days later into that year, the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament pushed Pakistan to the verge of an all-out war with India with New Delhi accusing two major jihadi groups based in Pakistan for the attack. New Delhi asked Pakistan to hand over 20 men, who included the leadership of the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. Pakistan flatly refused. Though the threat of war subsided with serious international, especially American diplomatic intervention, President Musharraf’s January 6 speech came as a big breather. Musharraf promised that Pakistan would not allow any terror attack to emanate from its territory and subsequently banned Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.

Since 2002, the Pakistani government has fought Taliban and al-Qaeda even at the cost of serious setbacks to its internal security, especially along its western border. But Pakistan’s efforts at tightening the noose around groups waging war against India have been extremely difficult though Musharraf’s regime did launch a crackdown against militant groups leading to a substantial decrease in violence in Kashmir.

... contd.