Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak

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