In a significant scaling down and reorientation of its Kashmir policy, Islamabad will cut support to Pakistan-based terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. However, it will continue to provide moral and diplomatic support — but not military training or supplies -- to "indigenous" Kashmiri groups like Hizbul Mujaheddin, provided such groups purge themselves of all non-Kashmiri Muslims. General Musharraf is believed to have given these assurances to Washington through the offices of the US ambassador in Islamabad in an effort to forestall a threatened war by India and punitive measures by Washington.
Wot? No Arabs? No Chechens? No Paks? How can you fight a proxy war of attrition without mercenaries? |