By first encouraging, for months, his old buddies and veterans of Afghanistan Jihad in Lal Masjid, and then invading them only when China came down hard on him for the kidnapping of its citizens by the militants, Musharraf might have been able to convince the White House that he was the man US still needed to control extremism in Pakistan. He might also have gotten some more time in power. But I don't believe he himself is convinced that, without pushing his army in the midst of a low-intensity civil war, he can eliminate the scourge his army had created, supported, and trained at the behest of USA, for two decades starting at the end of seventies.
The militants have grown too strong for him, or for the USA for that matter. Look what is going on:
Militants in pamphlets distributed in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan region, say they have ended their ten months long truce with the government and blamed the government for breaking the agreement. Pakistan deployed thousands of troops in Swat area, fearing "holy war" after the storming of the militant Red Mosque last week.
More than 60 Pakistanis, including soldiers and police recruits, have been killed in three attacks in the past two days. At least 11 Pakistani soldiers were killed in Swat when two suicide bombers rammed explosive laden cars into a convoy. At the same time a roadside bomb also went off. Another 40 were injured in the attack near the town of Matta.
In the city of Dera Ismail Khan at least 26 people died and more than 30 were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up among young men waiting to take a police recruitment test at a police recruitment centre.
On Saturday, a suicide attack on an army convoy near the village of Daznary, near Miranshah, killed 24 and wounded at least 30.
Previously 102 people died in the Red Mosque (Lal Masjid) siege including 11 soldiers.
If Musharraf thinks that by killing a hundred or so people in the mess called Lal Masjid Incident he is moving in the right direction then he is in for a shock. I hope I am wrong but I don't believe it is the end. I am afraid it is the beginning. The militants of Lal Masjid have clearly struck a chord with the conservative segments of the society because they tapped into a strong and seething sense of injustice and inequality. They have shown by their example that when the state fails to take action then people themselves can take action but they have to be very strong to do so. People can see the government system does not work. It is corrupt and people are sick and tired of it.
The worst example was set by Musharraf himself when he seized power by force. He has marginalized moderate political parties and has created a political vacuum that needs to filled. And that is being filled by religious extremists. He does not seem to understand or his masters who push him in that direction are too powerful for him to let him understand that there cannot be no a military solution to Pakistan's problems.
More and more Pakistanis will be drawn to the mindset of power as long as long as a general, whose only training is in using force, is sitting in the president's chair.
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