KARACHI - A more than six-month truce between the military government of Pakistan and al-Qaeda - negotiated by militant groups - has been shattered with the arrest of Abu Faraj al-Libbi of al-Qaeda and country-wide crackdowns on militant groups.
Following Abu Faraj's apprehension last week in connection with two assassination attempts against Musharraf in 2003, the government placed the country on high security alert. Generally, such alerts remain in place for three to four days, but it is still in place, and is likely to remain so in the foreseeable future as military and security installations, important personalities and airports are considered at risk.
Asia Times Online has learned that Musharraf's administration secretly secured a deal with al-Qaeda after a series of attacks from the tribal belt of North West Frontier Province to the southern port city of Karachi rattled the country last year. Al-Qaeda has also openly called for the overthrow of Musharraf.
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The investigations into the two unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf in December 2003 brought to light the penetration of jihadi terrorist organizations into the Pakistan army and air force at the junior and middle levels.
Four officers of the army and six of the air force were found to have joined hands with an assortment of jihadi terrorist organizations, such as the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), the Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Jundullah, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ) and al-Qaeda in hatching the conspiracy to have Musharraf killed as a reprisal for his cooperation with the US in the "war against terror".
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