Pleased as punch with its most recent crack-down on "terrorists", the Musharraf administration is tightening the noose on Al-Qa'eda fugitives. Iffat Idris reports from Islamabad Pakistan last week found itself once again deeply embroiled in the US-led war against terror, both the first phase against Al- Qa'eda in Afghanistan, and now the second against the Saddam Hussein regime. It is not always a comfortable place to be. On Sunday Pakistani police announced a breakthrough in the hunt for Al-Qa'eda fugitives, many of whom are believed to have fled from Afghanistan into Pakistan after the fall of the Taliban. Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, one of the leading figures in Al-Qa'eda, was captured by police in Rawalpindi on Saturday night. Sheikh Mohamed, a 37-year old Kuwaiti, is the uncle of Ramzi Yousaf, currently serving a life sentence in the United States for the original 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. Sheikh Mohamed is believed to have helped Ramzi plot that attack. In 1996 the Americans indicted him on charges of planning to blow up airliners in the Philippines. He was also suspected of involvement in the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. What the Americans most want him for, though, is 11 September. Mohamed is thought to have been the mastermind behind the plot, the man who financed and came up with the idea of flying planes into the Pentagon and World Trade Center. All in all, a very big Al-Qa'eda fish. The Americans had put a $25 million price tag on his capture. This explains why the Pakistani authorities were delighted by their achievement. They claimed that credit for the capture lay solely with their intelligence agencies, although the Americans said they had FBI assistance. The operation to capture Sheikh Mohamed, which occurred at 2.30am in a house in the residential Westridge area of Rawalpindi, took place without anyone being killed or injured. Two other Arabs were arrested with Sheikh Mohamed, along with the owner of the house, Ahmed Abdul Qudoos. Qudoos is a member of the Islamist Jama'at-I-Islami Party, which opposed the US-led war in Afghanistan and criticised American involvement in the capture of Al-Qa'eda suspects in Pakistan. Pakistani authorities have not revealed the whereabouts of the Al-Qa'eda captives but indicated that Khalid Sheikh Mohamed would be handed over to the Americans shortly. He will most likely be taken to the highly fortified American camp at Guantanamo Bay. Two other senior Al-Qa'eda figures previously arrested in Pakistan are also believed to be at Guantanamo. Abu-Zubaydah was arrested in Faisalabad last March, and Ramzi Bin Al-Sabih was captured after a gunfight in Karachi last September. Sheikh Mohamed had left the flat where Ramzi was holed up just hours before the police raid. Khalid Sheikh Mohamed's capture is a huge boost for the Pakistani authorities, often criticised for not doing enough to find Al- Qa'eda fugitives in the country, and for the Bush administration. The latter will be able to refute accusations that the US government is focussing on Iraq while the original war on terror, against Al-Qa'eda, remains unfinished. Though delighted to have caught Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, the Pakistani government knows there is more trouble ahead. For a start, the fact that three senior Al-Qa'eda leaders have now been arrested in Pakistan heightens speculation that Osama Bin Laden -- US 'public enemy number one' -- is somewhere in the country. Furthermore, the arrest and hand-over to the US will inflame Islamists in Pakistan who are already seething at what they describe as violations of the country's sovereignty. Islamist anger was on display even before Saturday's arrests. On Friday two policemen were killed, and six other people, including four policemen, were injured when a gunman opened fire on the police post outside the US Consulate in Karachi. The gunman was captured by nearby paramilitary rangers and is being interrogated by police. The US Consulate in the city was the target of a suicide bombing last June that killed 12 people, all Pakistani. Though this latest attack took place outside the US Consulate, Pakistani officials are convinced that the police -- and not Americans -- were the intended target. They link the shooting with Karachi's on- going sectarian violence -- nine Shi'ites were killed outside an Imambargah the previous week -- and the Pakistani government's support for the US. The Musharraf government has had a tough time dealing with the conflicting pressures it has faced from Washington and its own public, especially the Islamists, since 11 September. While the former wants Pakistan to help in the war against terror, the latter strongly oppose Pakistan's cooperation. Now that the US is preparing to target Iraq, Musharraf faces more of the same conflicting pressures. In Iraq's case, Washington is not seeking direct military or logistical support from Islamabad. What it wants is from Pakistan, one of the 10 non- permanent members of the Security Council, is a vote in favour of a second UN resolution endorsing and clearing the way for military action against Iraq. Recently, America stepped up its pressure on Pakistan, dispatching Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca to Islamabad to convey US wishes to Musharraf directly. President Musharraf is all too aware of America's sole superpower status and its massive influence over the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, whose assistance is vital for the Pakistani economy. Pakistani exporters are desperate to gain access to the vast US market, while Musharraf himself is keen to purchase subsidised military equipment from the US. All of these factors make a compelling case for supporting a second UN resolution. The problem for Musharraf, though, is that the decision to back a second UN resolution would be deeply unpopular at home. Among Islamists in particular, but also in the wider public, there is strong opposition to war against Iraq. Anti- war demonstrations have taken place across the country. So far, Musharraf is bowing to domestic rather than US pressure. Pakistan has maintained the line that UN weapons inspectors should be given more time, and that a peaceful, diplomatic solution to the Iraq crisis should be found. President Musharraf told Christina Rocca that Pakistan probably would abstain on a second UN resolution. As the American push to war gathers momentum, though, and the corresponding diplomatic pressure increases, Islamabad will find it harder and harder to stick to this position. But if it votes for a second UN resolution, it can expect more Islamist attacks at home. Pakistan's government is truly caught between a rock and a hard place.
