| Musharraf cannot afford to lose the support of some of the fundamentalist bigwigs just before the referendum, and is working overtime to convince them that he is taking all measures to "safeguard Islam". He has refused to extradite Sheikh Omar Sayeed to the US for the Daniel Pearl murder and has also not come down in any substantial way on the mujahideen fighting in Kashmir. While US Federal Bureau of Investigation teams jointly raided with Pakistan army regulars to capture top al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubaidah in the last week of March, Musharraf's spokesmen have taken pains to emphasize that US troops will not be allowed full leverage to conduct hot pursuit inside Pakistani territory. In trying to keep a foot in both the "Allah" and "America" compounds, the Pakistani army is once again attempting a delicate balancing act. |