Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak
Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak
Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak
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1 <strong>Frontline</strong> <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong><br />
December 1999 <strong>Islam</strong>ic militants hijack an Indian airlines jet<br />
with 155 passengers on board after it takes off<br />
from Kathmandu, Nepal, and force it to land in<br />
Kandahar. Three militant leaders are freed by<br />
Indian authorities and flown to Kandahar to end<br />
the hijacking. Among them are Masood Azhar, the<br />
later head of Jaish-e-Mohammed, and British-born<br />
militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh.<br />
June 2001 General Pervez Musharraf names himself President<br />
while remaining head of the army.<br />
July 2001 Musharraf meets Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari<br />
Vajpayee in the Indian city of Agra, in the first<br />
summit between the two neighbours in more<br />
than two years. <strong>The</strong> meeting ends without a<br />
breakthrough or even a joint statement because of<br />
differences over Kashmir.<br />
September 2001 After the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington,<br />
Musharraf pledges support for the USA in its<br />
fight against terrorism, facilitating US attacks on<br />
Afghanistan. <strong>The</strong> USA lifts some of the sanctions<br />
imposed on <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong> after the nuclear tests.<br />
December 2001 India threatens to attack <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong> after a suicide<br />
attack on the Indian parliament allegedly by<br />
<strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong>i based militant groups. Both countries<br />
amass more than one million troops on their<br />
borders.<br />
January 2002 Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter is<br />
kidnapped in Karachi while researching a story on<br />
terrorism. Under pressure from the USA and India,<br />
Musharraf outlaws five <strong>Islam</strong>ic extremist groups<br />
including Lashakar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-<br />
Mohammed (JEM), the two groups blamed for the<br />
attack on the Indian parliament.<br />
April 2002 Musharraf wins another five years in office in a<br />
controversial referendum.<br />
May 2002 14 people, including 11 French technicians, are<br />
killed in a suicide attack on a bus in Karachi.<br />
June 2002 12 people are killed in a suicide attack outside the<br />
US consulate in the city. Britain and the USA urge<br />
their citizens to leave India and <strong><strong>Pak</strong>istan</strong> as the