The September 11th attack
Pakistan supports U.S., faces internal opposition
Bloomberg News
ISLAMABAD— Pakistan on Saturday agreed to U.S. demands to restrict travel to neighboring Afghanistan and help target Osama bin Laden, named by the U.S. as a suspect in Tuesday's attacks, American and Pakistani officials said.
Associated Press
The decision, which came after a four-hour meeting of the South Asian nation's National Security Council and cabinet in Islamabad, puts the predominantly Muslim country in a bind, because it faces the threat of internal discord and reprisals from Afghanistan's ruling Islamic militia.
Thousands of refugees fled Afghanistan into Torkham, Pakistan, yesterday amid fears that the United States was preparing to launch strikes against terrorist targets throughout the country.
"Pakistan agreed to fully support international efforts to fight terrorism," Asad Hayauddin, Pakistan's spokesman in Washington said. "But the public perception has to be allayed somehow" among the Pakistani people, he added.
General Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in Pakistan in a 1999 coup, has set meetings with newspaper editors, political leaders and clerics tomorrow in an attempt to line up their support, Hayauddin said.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters at Camp David, Maryland, that Pakistan had agreed to a list of demands from the Bush administration. Powell joined other top officials at the presidential retreat for a meeting with Bush.
Afghanistan has harbored bin Laden for years, according to the U.S. Bush called bin Laden, 43, a "prime suspect" in the attacks for the first time on Saturday, warning Americans to prepare for a "broad and sustained" war.
The U.S. sought access to Pakistani airspace for its warplanes, a senior administration official said Thursday. U.S. officials also wanted Pakistan to share intelligence about bin Laden, according to the Washington Post.
'Strict vigilance'
"We have put strict vigilance on our border and restricted travel between Pakistan and neighboring countries," Abdul Sattar, Pakistan's foreign minister, said on state-run television after a security council meeting.
Since hijacked planes flew into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near downtown Washington, killing as many as 5,000 people, Musharraf has pledged his "unstinted" support for the U.S.
Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh told CNN his country will also cooperate with the U.S., declining to say if that will extend to allowing U.S. ground troops in his country.
"We stand solidly with the U.S." in the fight against terrorism, Singh said.
Political will
Still, analysts have questioned whether Pakistan's government has the will to take on Afghanistan's Taliban while so many clusters of Pakistanis embrace its strict version of Islam and its hostility toward the U.S.
"If Pakistan decides to take these groups on, it will be a major undertaking," said Teresita Schaffer, a former U.S. diplomat in South Asia now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "Clipping the wings of these groups is not a risk-free option."
Already the country's banks have sought to shore up its stock market, which has declined 8.6 percent since Tuesday to a 22-month low, on fears the pressures might destabilize the nation.
Pakistan's state-run National Bank of Pakistan, United Bank Ltd., Habib Bank Ltd. and other lenders agreed to buy stocks on Monday, to prop up the market, said Mohammad Sohail, head of research at Invest Capital Securities in Karachi. The stock market is also set to ask the government for special tax breaks.
Bin Laden
Bin Laden recruited young Muslim fighters in the Pakistani border city of Peshawar, about 150 miles from the Afghan capital Kabul, during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, a former bin Laden associate testified in a U.S. trial this year.
Afghanistan today warned of reprisals against any neighbor that abets a military strike against it, a threat aimed at Pakistan, one of three countries that recognize the Taliban government.
"If any neighboring country gave territorial way or airspace to (the U.S.) against our land, it would draw us into an imposed war" against them, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar said in a statement.
Afghanistan's economy might further suffer without fuel supplies and foreign exchange from Pakistan, its largest trading partner. An estimated 5 million Afghans already face starvation as a result of a protracted drought and civil war in the country of 28 million people, according to the United Nations.
Pakistan also seeks economic help. Its government will need U.S. support to get an International Monetary Fund loan, expected next month. That aid is crucial to keep money flowing into the impoverished nation, and to allow it to qualify for easier repayment terms on its $37 billion debt.
