Pakistan's Awkward Balancing Act on Islamic Militant Groups

This is a nice summary of Pakistan's janus-faced politics. What it will produce over the long run is very unsettling.
RLC


Pakistan's Awkward Balancing Act on Islamic Militant Groups
By PAMELA CONSTABLE
Published: August 26, 2006 (Washington Post)

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- For the past five years, Pakistan has pursued a risky, two-sided policy toward Islamic militancy, positioning itself as a major ally in the Western-led war against global terrorism while reportedly allowing homegrown Muslim insurgent groups to meddle in neighboring India and Afghanistan.
Now, two high-profile cases of terrorism -- a day of gruesome, sophisticated train bombings in India in mid-July and a plot foiled this month to blow up planes leaving Britain for the United States -- have cast a new spotlight on Pakistan's ambiguous, often starkly contradictory roles as both a source and suppressor of Islamic violence, according to Pakistani and foreign experts.