As I postulated here at the American Thinker, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, creator, a leader of, and international ambassador of the Taliban has split with al Qaeda. He is turning his loyalist Taliban against al Qaeda, which itself is in the process of taking over the Taliban via young Taliban chieftains. Ergo, a war is shaping up between Maulana Fazlur Rahman and his millions of followers, Bhutto, Musharraf on one side against "young Taliban" and al Qaeda on the other. Here is the latest bit of evidence to support my theory.
Bhutto said the suspension of the constitution was "undemocratic" and that it would only encourage Islamic extremists.
As many as 2,500 lawyers as well as opposition politicians, rights activists and judges have been arrested or detained in a government crackdown.
However Pakistan's intelligence agencies are believed to have deleted the names of PPP leaders and those of the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam religious party led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, from the prospective list of detainees.
Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who is also the leader of the six-party religious alliance MMA, has expressed approval for the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) issued by Musharraf under the state of emergency and told reporters that he has no problem with it.
A few months ago, the Maulana would have been the first guy arrested as an international terrorist, al Qaeda and Taliban supporter. However, he has flipped and is now supporting Musharraf, although he does so circumspectly lest his change of allegiance set off alarm bells with his jihad buddies.
Understanding this is key to understanding the Musharraf emergency declaration. He has aligned the forces to begin the fighting in earnest but has to "shape the battlefield" by securing those institutions that are supposed to be for democracy but instead are infested with jihad sympathizers, i.e. the courts and media. And trolls, don't even bother. I can post examples all day of the Pakistani media being even more sympathetic to al Qaeda than the Miami Herald.
Update: Linked in Trackback below, reports coming out of Pakistan claiming Musharraf has essentially declared war on al Qaeda and sympathetic Taliban and is preparing his forces to finish them off. Let's see where this goes. I am about 85% on believing they are preparing for an all out war with terrorists. Not totally convinced, but consider it the most likely course of action.
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