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

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m usharraf appeared visibly uncomfortable as he stood by Bush at
their joint press conference on 4 March 2006, and heard the US
President say that he had come to Islamabad to determine whether or
not the Pakistani leader was as committed as he had been in the past
to the war on terror. The comments reflected the growing frustration
of the American administration over Musharraf’s failure to stop
Taliban insurgents using Pakistani territory as a base for attacks on
the coalition forces in Afghanistan. The issue had become a sour point
in the relations between Washington and Islamabad as the escalating
violence in Afghanistan resulted in heavy casualties among US troops.
More American soldiers were killed in the fighting in early 2006 than
in the last four years following the ousting of the Taliban regime in
December 2001.
On the day of Bush’s visit, Islamabad looked like a fortified city
with some ten thousand troops and police deployed on security duty
and anti-aircraft guns installed in the surrounding hills. Marksmen
had taken up positions on the rooftops. The extraordinary security
measures were necessary as the shadow of al-Qaeda continued to hang
heavy over Pakistan. 1 The administration was visibly nervous. A day
earlier, a suicide bomber had rammed his vehicle into a car outside the