Pakistan Military Taking Control

[tekisui]

CONCERN grew in India yesterday that the Pakistan army had taken charge of the country's response to the Mumbai terror attacks and effectively staged a coup against the country's nascent democracy.

Fears of a full-scale resumption of power by the army in Islamabad lie behind India's relatively cautious response to the crisis, despite New Delhi's insistence that elements in Pakistan orchestrated the slaughter in Mumbai.

In a dramatic manifestation of the Pakistan army's role in the drama, the civilian Government reneged on its agreement with India to send the chief of the top spy agency, General Shuja Pasha, to New Delhi to help with the investigation. The army countermanded the deal.

And it has been disclosed that the chief of the army, General Ashfaq Kayani, despatched his personal aircraft to New Delhi in the middle of the night to pick up Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was on an official visit to India at the time of the attacks.

Diplomatic sources said Mr Qureshi was told by General Kayani to get back to Islamabad and that the army chief's aircraft was being sent to bring him home.

The army, which has ruled Pakistan for most of its 61 years as an independent nation, revels in confrontations with India.

One analyst in New Delhi wrote yesterday: "It could be that the ultimate aim of this entire exercise (the Mumbai attacks) would be for the military in Pakistan to take power again inthe name of dealing with an India crisis."

Though India does not say so officially, New Delhi is convinced Pakistan's ISI spy agency was aware of the plan for the assault on Mumbai, just as it was aware of the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul last July.


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