Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak

10 Frontline Pakistan
Not surprisingly, the stalemate at Agra was hailed by extremists in
both India and Pakistan, who hoped to thrive in an atmosphere of
tension. Islamic militant groups like LeT intensified suicide attacks
in Kashmir and vowed to extend attacks inside India. Musharraf had
provoked the ire of Islamic fundamentalists when he warned them
against religious terrorism and militancy and tried to restrict the
activities of militant groups, many of whom were fighting in Kashmir.
Even more disturbing was the resumption of the exchange of
artillery fire along the Line of Control, breaking the eight-month-old
ceasefire. With the intensification of guerrilla attacks, India stepped
up efforts to get Pakistan branded as a terrorist state. But this attempt
to isolate Pakistan received a setback, as Musharraf’s decision
to support the US-led war in Afghanistan, improved Islamabad’s
international standing.
The 11 September terrorist attacks and their aftermath had changed
the entire regional security scenario and triggered a rapid downslide
in India-Pakistan relations. Worried with Pakistan’s role as a key US
strategic ally, India lost no time in urging Washington not to forget
its sufferings from ‘Pakistani-backed cross-border terrorism’. New
Delhi tried to use the ‘war on terror’ to its advantage. It portrayed the
Kashmir problem purely as a matter of combating terrorism and made
the case that it also had the right to pursue militants from Pakistanicontrolled
Kashmir, exactly as the USA hunted down al-Qaeda and the
Taliban in Afghanistan. 10
The tension mounted further in October 2001, following the LeT
suicide attack by militants on the Kashmir assembly building in Srinagar
which claimed 36 lives. The incident occurred as US forces were in the
last stages of preparation to launch an attack on Afghanistan. Indian
leaders and military commanders warned of ‘hot pursuit’, sending
troops into Pakistani-controlled Azad Kashmir to destroy militant
camps there. 11 Musharraf denounced the attack as an act of terrorism,
but that failed to pacify India. Both countries traded accusations,
backed by an ‘ominous troop build-up’ along the border.
The situation raised serious concerns in Washington. Fearing that
a fire could break out at any time in the base camp of its anti-terror
campaign, the USA rushed its Secretary of State, Colin Powell, to India
and Pakistan. The Bush administration, which had initially chosen to
distance itself from the Kashmir conflict, showed greater enthusiasm to
defuse tensions. Powell succeeded in persuading India and Pakistan to
exercise restraint, but it was only a matter of time before the situation