Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and the country's top military commanders ended Friday seven hours of talks without issuing any response to a US request for help in hunting down Osama bin Laden.
The talks at the Pakistani army's general headquarters in Rawalpindi came a day after the US confirmed for the first time that it regarded bin Laden as a suspect in Tuesday's terror attacks on New York and Washington.
Both governments have refused to reveal details of their discussions but military sources said Washington had requested the use of Pakistani airspace for possible attacks on bin Laden's bases in neighboring Afghanistan.
Musharraf has promised the US his full cooperation in the aftermath of the attacks. But the inconclusive nature of Friday's talks underlined the extent to which his ability to turn pledges into action was hampered by opposition within the military, as well as from Pakistan's own radical Islamists.
A vague statement issued after the talks said the participants had agreed a number of recommendations which would be put to the Cabinet and National Security Council on Saturday.
Maulana Samiul Haq, Pakistan's main fundamentalist leader, warned the president to expect a huge public backlash if he allowed the US to use Pakistani airspace or land to launch attacks on Afghanistan.
"I am sure the Pakistan army will not allow this to happen and Musharraf will be mindful of the sentiments of his undercommand. There will be a strong public backlash also," he told AFP.
Sources within Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency said Washington had requested specific and comprehensive details on bin Laden's network in Pakistan.
In particular they said Islamabad had been asked to divulge everything it knew on bin Laden's contacts in Pakistan and the written messages he allegedly used to transmit orders to his followers around the world.
A decision to cooperate with a US attack on Afghanistan would represent a major departure for Pakistan, one of only three countries to recognize the ruling Taliban militia in Afghanistan.
It would also involve Musharraf taking a huge political risk.
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, sometimes described as a "state within a state", maintains close links to the Taliban, allegedly providing it with technical advice, weapons and supplies.
Islamabad denies this but argues its strategic interests are served by maintaining close ties with the dominant political force in its perennially unstable western neighbor.
Hameed Gul, a former head of the ISI, said it was not in Pakistan's interests to side with the US against Afghanistan.
"Afghans defeated one super power and by the grace of God they will defeat another if the US decides to attack Afghanistan," he said, referring to the Afghan's fight against Russian occupation.
In 1998, a botched US attempt to hit bin Laden's bases with cruise missiles triggered a wave of protests in Pakistan, some of which erupted into major riots.
Some of the missiles, fired over Pakistan from ships in the Arabian sea, landed on Pakistani soil, killing 14 people.
The fallout from the strikes, launched in retaliation for bin Laden's alleged involvement in the bombing of two US embassies in Africa, was worsened by the fact that the Islamabad government was only informed of the attack at the last moment.
Despite the risks involved, Musharraf's tone since Tuesday has implied that he is determined to change the course of Pakistan's policy.
On Thursday he described the attacks on the US as a "heinous crime against humanity" which had elevated the struggle against terrorism to a new level -- ISLAMABAD (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
