The arrest of Khaled Sheikh Mohammed is the clearest sign yet of the readiness and ability of Pervez Musharraf’s government to act decisively against al-Qaeda despite signs of sympathy for the group among country’s intelligence and military communities. The streets across the upmarket Westridge neighbourhood of Rawalpindi were quiet yesterday after Saturday’s operation to seize one of the world’s most high-profile terrorist suspects. But the arrest has jolted the retired generals and other former officers who live in the suburb and have always preferred to look at the “war on terror” from a distance. For months, Pakistanis have been told that members of Afghanistan’s former Taliban regime or al-Qaeda were either regrouping in areas close to Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan or in parts of Karachi, the southern port city, but never close to the heart of the military’s establishment. But as retired Lt General Kamal Matinuddin, an author of a book on Afghanistan, noted, Pakistan’s fight against militant groups was no longer confined to only limited areas. Full Story
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