Watch this boomerang

General Pervez Musharraf has surprised everyone by publicly stating that army and airforce personnel were involved in the two assassination attempts on his life last December. The possibility of such attacks from Pakistan8217;s Islamised army has been on the minds of analysts and governments across the world. In 1995, for instance, a group of senior army officers, headed by Major General Z. Abbasi, were arrested on charges of plotting to assassinate then prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, seize power and establish an Islamic state. The present case is at least the second known case after the Abbasi plan, of Pakistani armymen trying to assassinate their chief on grounds of religion. Musharraf has indicated that while some of the personnel involved were lured by money, others were motivated by religious ideology.

There has been an effort to play down the rank and seniority of the men involved in the two assassination attempts. It has been stated that the suspects are below officer rank. This, in a way, highlights the dangers of the situation even more. For example, the world has been deeply worried about the security of nuclear weapons in Pakistan which are controlled by its army. We know of the Islamisation of the army under Zia ul-Haq. We know of Pakistan army8217;s commitment to safeguard what it terms as the 8220;ideological frontiers8221; of Pakistan. Given the extensive nuclear bazaar that the so-called 8220;father8221; of the Pakistani nuclear bomb, Dr A.Q. Khan, has been running, the risk of even the Pakistani army losing control over nuclear weapons and fissile material through its own renegade personnel, should worry the world.

If armymen can fall victim to plots aimed at assassinating their chief and president, what is there to stop some of them from getting hold of nuclear weapons? The linkage to a possible Al-Qaeda mastermind makes the whole episode even more sinister. At the same time, it is clear that the terrorism promoted by the Pakistan army and the ISI has come right back to target its top leadership. Whether this will ring alarm bells within the Pakistani army is yet to be seen.