It’s official now, Pakistan dumps Osama

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It’s official now, Pakistan dumps Osama

Our Bureau NEW DELHI PAKISTAN on Wednesday formally dumped Osama bin Laden and jumped on to the US-led anti-terrorism bandwagon, pitching its decision as a tactical compromise aimed at thwarting India.

In a televised address to the nation, Gen Pervez Musharraf said Pakistan was choosing the lesser of two evils— the lesser being a compromise with the US and the greater, India.

The speech was laden with his concern about a fundamentalist backlash in Pakistan against collaboration with the US.

In a 30-minute speech, Musharraf enumerated Pakistan’s ”critical concerns” as four: the country’s security, its economy, its nuclear facilities and the “Kashmir cause”. These concerns, he said, would be safeguarded by toeing the American line.

Musharraf was strident in his attack on India. Apart from identifying it as the “main enemy”, he accused it of seeking to install a hostile government in Kabul.

He asked India to “lay off”, while painting the neighbouring country as a virtual threat to Islam itself. He said the destruction of Pakistan, “the fortress of Islam”, would hurt the faith.

Meanwhile, in Kandahar, the 1000-member ‘shura’ deferred a decision on the extradition of Osama bin Laden. However, Taliban supremo Mulla Omar’s opening remarks made it pretty clear that a decision to do so would be against Islam and the Taliban wouldn’t hesitate to declare a jehad on the US if Afghanistan was attacked.

http://www.economictimes.com/today/21poli07.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 20, 2001

Answers

Response to ItÂ’s official now, Pakistan dumps Osama

How much more complicated does this get if bin Laden is now in Pakistan?

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), September 20, 2001.

Response to ItÂ’s official now, Pakistan dumps Osama

Very.

-- Uncle Fred (dogboy45@bigfoot.com), September 21, 2001.

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