Word: pashtunistan
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...things aren't so clear. With the anarchy along the border with Afghanistan - Pashtunistan, as the Pakistanis call it - promising to spread, with Benazir Bhutto promising mass demonstrations, the courts closed and Musharraf promising the army will put down civil disobedience at the same time as he promises democratic elections in February, it's hard to tell where the generals stand...
...concern might be Pakistan's ethnic Pashtuns. They make up roughly 20% of Pakistan's officer corps and 25% of enlisted. Historically, they have faithfully served Pakistan, but since 9/11 their loyalty has been sorely tested. Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and the Taliban are holed up in Pashtunistan, on both sides of the remote, mountainous, impenetrable Pakistan-Afghan border - the rear base they use to wage jihad on Islamabad and Kabul. Al-Qaeda has at least the implicit support of the local Pashtuns, and, inevitably, Pashtuns are dying, both at our hands and the Pakistan army...
...heralded Khan in a couplet as the Scarlet Pimpernel of the East: "They sought him here, they sought him there, those columns sought him everywhere." After independence and the partitioning of India, Khan became a thorn in the side of the new Pakistan government, violently agitating for an independent Pashtunistan until his death, by natural causes...
Remarkably enough, there was an attempt to celebrate a holiday called Pashtunistan Day in Herat during our stay. In the past the occasion has called for parties, parades and dancing in the streets. This year in the desultory procession were a T-55 Afghan army tank, a number of military trucks carrying sullen soldiers, and a small band. The dispirited musicians played a couple of numbers, and a squad of soldiers in field boots galumphed through a dance. The whole affair was over in an hour. Only a handful of people watched...
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