Author: Chidanand Rajghatta
Publication: The Times of India
Date: July 11, 2007
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/US_China_brace_for_Lal_Masjid_backlash/articleshow/2193386.cms
The United States and China are bracing for
a backlash from Islamic extremists after supporting the Pakistani military's
attack on the Lal Masjid complex in Islamabad that killed militant leader
Abdul Rashid Ghazi and an unspecified number of fundamentalists.
The US Embassy in Islamabad on Tuesday warned
American nationals to restrict their movement in and around Islamabad and
Peshawar following the Lal Masjid action, citing ''non-specific public announcements
by terrorist elements in the Bajaur tribal agency that they plan to unleash
attacks on Pakistani Governmental police and army institutions in retaliation
for recent events.''
The warning came even as the State Department
publicly backed the Musharraf regime's crackdown on Lal Masjid resulting in
a bloody carnage.
''Of course, everybody wants to see these
kinds of situations resolved peacefully. It's everybody's optimal solution.
But it is fundamentally a matter for the government to decide when negotiations
end and when action needs to take place to bring some sort of resolution to
the situation,'' State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said on Tuesday
even as reports of a carnage trickled out.
Bush himself came out in support of Musharraf
at a town hall meeting in Cleveland, without referring directly to the Lal
Masjid carnage. ''I like him and I appreciate him,'' Bush said of Musharraf,
calling him a ''a strong ally in the war against these extremists.''
''I am, of course, constantly working with
him to make sure that democracy continues to advance in Pakistan,'' Bush added.
Echoing the administration's support for the
military action, McCormack said the Lal Masjid inmates had any number of opportunities
to resolve the situation peacefully, ''yet they persisted and they persisted
to the point of using children as human shields.''
Meanwhile, China too has asked its nationals
in Pakistan to remain vigilant after terrorists killed three Chinese workers
on the outskirts of Peshawar in the middle of the Lal Masjid siege.
The killing followed the military siege of
Lal Masjid, which in turn was precipitated by some fundamentalist inmates
kidnapping seven Chinese workers who they said worked in sex shops fronting
as massage parlours.
The incident, and the subsequent massacre
of Chinese workers in addition to past killings of Chinese citizens, is threatening
to jeopardize ties between Beijing and Islamabad which are often described
in hyperbolic terms like ''higher than mountains and deeper than oceans.''
On Tuesday, Beijing sternly urged Pakistan
to follow up on the killing of Chinese workers ''seek the truth, punish the
criminals, and to effectively strengthen the protection of Chinese citizens.''
Meanwhile, the week-long stand-off that ended
in a massacre on Tuesday attracted little attention in the US, where focus
is more on the debate over a pullout from Iraq.
In fact, a news channel on Tuesday cut into
a story on Lal Masjid to bring breaking news of a small airplane crash in
Florida.
Discussion and debate has been more vigorous
in the print media and the online world, where there is little sympathy for
General Musharraf's ''Massacre at the Mosque'' as bloggers have dubbed it.
Most analysts believe the crisis was engineered
by the General himself to deflect attention from the ongoing judicial spat
and question the manner in which the situation was allowed to aggravate for
several months in the heart of Islamabad.
US newspapers and think tanks have been scathing
in their indictment of Musharraf misrule which many say is responsible for
the rise in Islamic extremism, contrary to the administration's line that
General is a bulwark against fundamentalism.
''Pervez Musharraf's misrule of Pakistan during
the past eight years is finally catching up with him,'' the Washington Post
remarked tartly in an editorial, ironically headlined ' The General Under
Siege . It noted that the General "is running out of supporters except
in Washington.''
On Tuesday, the respected Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace released a report that called for a US rethink on
its Pakistan policy, saying ''Pakistan's military rule only provides false
sense of security, and western support for the military only reinforced regional
instability.''
Pakistan's military is complicit in the worsening
security situation in Afghanistan-including the resurgence of the Taliban,
terrorism in Kashmir, and the growth of jihadi extremism and capabilities,
the report said, in a stunning rebuke to the Bush administration's policies
and prescriptions.