Insider Notes From United Press International for Oct. 10, 2001

United Press International
October 10, 2001

Secretary of State Colin Powell's trip to India and Pakistan next week is turning into a desperately high-stakes mission, now that India is openly threatening military action against Kashmiri terrorist bases inside Pakistan. India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has coldly rejected the latest appeals from Pakistan's self-appointed president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, for an instant summit to clear the air after last week's suicide bombing of the Kashmiri Legislature in Srinagar by the Pakistan-backed Jaish-e-Mohammed, whose death toll has now risen to 36. India is furious at Musharraf's latest reshuffle of the top ranks of Pakistan's military, which has promoted Gen. Mohammed Aziz, a Kashmiri fundamentalist, to take over Musharraf's old job as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Indian intelligence says Aziz for years has been the mastermind of Pakistan's clandestine proxy war in Kashmir. Indian intelligence is also leaking even more dangerous material, in particular a report that Pakistan's Interior Minister (and ex-Gen.) Moinudeen Haider has given Musharraf a recording of a phone call between J-e-M leader Maulana Masud Azhar and Gen. Mahmood Ahmed, just sacked as head of Pakistan's ISI military intelligence arm, in which Azhar allegedly reports "success" in the Srinagar bombing. This will be Exhibit A in the Indian government's dossier to Powell.

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Pakistan watchers are still trying to make sense of Musharraf's sweeping purge of the military top ranks, beyond the obvious motive of removing potential coup organizers against him. One of Musharraf's complaints against Gen. Mahmood Ahmed was that the ISI chief had blocked Musharraf's attempt to fly into Afghanistan for a face-to-face meeting with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, insisting that the ISI should first prepare the way. Ahmed, who was in Washington when the terrorists struck on Sept. 11, held intensive talks with the Pentagon, State Department and CIA in the days immediately following, and returned to Pakistan arrogantly claiming to have the inside track on Washington thinking.

Copyright 2001

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