The Pakistani Security action in the famous Lal Masjid has all the parallels of the Operation Blue star, the Indian military intervention in the Golden Temple in 1984. Security actions targeting the places of worship are always a painful decision for the administrators. This is also fraught with the dangers of inviting the wrath of the fundamentalists. The history bears testimony to the bloody vengeance havocked by the religious zealots. The Pakistani General Musharraf must have undergone a similar dilemma before ordering the military action to flush out the Islamic Militia from the holy place. However, in doing so he has already distanced a majority of hardliners from the administration. He is certainly between the deep sea and the hard rock as far as containing the hardliners in Pakistan is concerned.
He has inherited a Pakistan which was already talibanised. It underlines the fact that Pakistan administration is now paying heavily for promoting the fundamentalist Frankenstein it has itself promoted. They may now find it increasingly difficult to douse the fire so easily even with the material support of the US. This is likely to further distance the ordinary Pakistanis away from the administration. It is immaterial from the view point of the commoners as to who is at the helm of affairs in Pakistan as few Pakistani rulers enjoyed the stamp of majority approval.
Moreover, the Pakistani General Musharraf enjoys the least public sympathy and support due to his own making in and outside the political establishment of Pakistan. Over the years he has frittered away the goodwill he enjoyed in the beginning. Sooner rather than later, he might find the going very tough after antagonizing two substantial sections of the society viz. the Islamic Fundamentalists and the influential section of the Judiciary. It needs no second thought to tell that militants are unlikely to take this assault kindly. Nor will they pardon the General for his misadventure in trying to flush out the militants from the Masjid. This is also likely to lower his image in the eyes of the radicals and strengthen the public opinion that he is a stooge of the Bush administration in its War against Terror. Thus the General is yet again in the middle of a deep crisis. He may come out of this predicament with the help of the West. But, this may be the beginning of his end.
