Timely and topical, J.N. Dixit's new book, India-Pakistan in War & Peace (Books Today; Rs 595; 501 pp) puts the interlocked destinies of South Asia's most volatile adversaries in a historical perspective. Stretching from the pre-Partition idea of Pakistan to the ruins of the Agra Summit, the book, rich in details and anecdotes, visits almost every defining moment-the birth of Pakistan, three Indo-Pak wars, the Simla summit, military coups in Islamabad, militancy in Kashmir, nuclearisation of the subcontinent, Kargil, the rise of Pervez Musharraf-in the lives of the two nations which are yet again on the brink of another war. Dixit's conclusion is indisputable: "While the international campaign against terrorism provides India and Pakistan with an opportunity to move towards a reasonable dialogue, this opportunity can be effectively used only if there is a fundamental transformation of power structure in Pakistan." What make the analysis credible and authentic are the credentials of the writer: a former foreign secretary and high commissioner to Pakistan, Dixit is one of the finest minds in diplomacy. What follows is an excerpt that maps the mind of Musharraf.

COMMANDO FIRST: Musharraf (left) established links with mujahideen groups between the late 1980s and mid-1990s

As far as India is concerned, he (Pervez Musharraf) was known to maintain a posture of political and military confrontation. He firmly believed that a sustained campaign of subversion and military intrusion would result in Pakistan achieving its objective of annexing Kashmir to Pakistan. His background and persona were factors affecting his initiating the Kargil misadventure. General Musharraf belongs to a Uttar Pradesh Muslim family. His grandparents and parents were residents of Delhi in the period immediately before Partition. Born in 1943, his family migrated to Pakistan when he was four. He grew up in Karachi and then in Gujranwala, ultimately being commissioned in the artillery branch of the Pakistani Army in 1964. He had a comparatively routine career till Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq took notice of him because of his reputation as a devout Muslim officer and his links with a number of Islam-pasand politicians of Pakistan. Like Zia, General Musharraf has strong links with the Jamat-e-Islami of Pakistan. The first significant assignment given by Zia to Musharraf was to be in charge of training mercenaries recruited from various Muslim countries for fighting against Soviet troops in Afghanistan, in the concerned Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence. There are reports that during this period he had contacts with Osama bin Laden, who was originally brought to Afghanistan by the US Central Intelligence Agency itself for constructing bunkers and tunnels for Afghan Mujahideen in different theatres of the conflict in Afghanistan. As part of his responsibility of training mercenaries, General Musharraf was also involved in financing their operations with the assistance of narcotic smugglers operating in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan. An interesting sidelight to this phase of his career is that while intelligence establishments of the US and Pakistan valued his services, the Narcotics Control Establishment of the US Government was not enamoured of the general. This is given as one of the reasons why General Musharraf is a singularity in the Pakistani officers cadre in that he has never gone for any higher military training to US military institutions. He has done training only in the United Kingdom.

A study shows Musharraf believes Pakistan's nuclear capability has ensured India will not retaliate against them for occupying the ridges in Kargil.

Even as Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif were meeting in Lahore, Musharraf was finalising plans for attacking India along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.

The year 1987 was a watershed in General Musharraf's career. He was made the brigade commander of the newly raised Special Services Group in the Siachen area, created to push back Indian forces from Siachen. He was responsible for a major attack on the Indian military post at Bilafond La in the Siachen sector in September 1987. His forces were decisively defeated by Indian troops. He was given a special assignment in the summer of 1989 to suppress a revolt by the Shias in the Gilgit region against the Sunni-dominated local administration. General Musharraf supplemented his troops with Pathan tribesmen from the NWFP and Afghanistan for this operation in which hundreds of Shias were massacred and displaced ... Musharraf has spent years with the Special Services Group in two separate assignments and claims to be the most knowledgeable expert on mountain warfare in the Pakistani armed forces. He values his identity as a commando more than as a gunner. The culmination of his field assignments was when he was appointed force commander, Northern Areas, which made him in charge of all military and subversive operations against Jammu and Kashmir. This assignment also brought him in close touch with senior officials of the ISI and extremist Islamic groups dealing with Afghanistan and subversion in Jammu and Kashmir. It was from the late 1980s and the mid-1990s that Pervez Musharraf established close links with groups like the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Toiba and Tabligi Jamaat. There are reports that Musharraf also has links with Osama bin Laden's international Islamic Front for Jehad against the US and Israel. Interestingly, Musharraf was also reported to be directly involved with an unsuccessful military coup against Benazir Bhutto in the autumn of 1995. The attempt was allegedly led by Major-General Zaheer-ul-Islam Abbasi, who succeeded Musharraf as force commander, Northern Areas...

Throughout the 1990s, Musharraf and his senior associates were involved in the supply of finance and arms to various secessionist groups and mercenaries intruding into Jammu and Kashmir.

Coming to more recent developments, Pervez Musharraf was not enthusiastic about the Lahore meeting between Nawaz Sharif and Vajpayee. Even while the meeting was taking place, Musharraf had finalised plans for attacking India along the loc in Jammu and Kashmir in the Kargil sector. He was the principal architect of the fourth major military conflict between India and Pakistan. Musharraf felt that he would succeed in his Kargil adventure because in his assessment conditions in India were politically uncertain, and the morale of the Indian armed forces was low owing to the poor leadership of Defence Minister George Fernandes and the soft leadership of Vajpayee. In fact a former chief of the ISI, Lt-General Assad Durrani, went to the extent of assessing during the initial stages of the Kargil conflict that Fernandes was perhaps the best Indian defence minister that Pakistan could hope for.

According to a study done by the Indian Institute for Topical Studies, Pervez Musharraf's approach towards India and the Kashmir question can be summarised as follows. The assessment is based on the pronouncements and interviews of Musharraf:

# The BJP is a party of "paper tigers", known more for verbosity than for action.

# Pakistan's nuclear and missile capability has ensured that India would not retaliate against Pakistan for occupying the ridges in the Kargil area.

# The fear of the possible use of nuclear weapons would bring in western intervention, thereby internationalising the Kashmir issue.

# Pakistan should agree to a ceasefire only if it is allowed to remain in occupation of the Indian territory. There should be no question of the restoration of the status quo ante.

# The interviews and speeches of General Musharraf since October 1998 show his thinking to be as follows:

# The acquisition of Kashmir by Pakistan can wait. What is more important is to keep the Indian Army bleeding in Kashmir just as the Afghan mujahideen kept the Soviet troops bleeding in Afghanistan.

# Even if the Kashmir issue is resolved, there cannot be normal relations between India and Pakistan because Pakistan, by frustrating India's ambition of emerging as a major Asian power on a par with China and Japan, would continue to be the thorn in India's flesh. And so as long as it does so, Pakistan would continue to enjoy the backing of China and Japan.

This is Musharraf's professional background and it demonstrates the mindset of an assertive, theologically committed military figure.