M A I N   N E W S

Bin Laden plots coup in Pak?

London, October 15
Is Osama bin Laden planning to sneak into Pakistan to create unrest there?

If a leading British defence expert is to be believed, the Al-Qaida supremo may make a well-calculated public move to cross the border aiming at overthrowing the President Pervez Musharraf’s regime with the help of a bloody civil war.

Col Christopher Langton, who heads the defence analysis wing of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, believes that the prospects of Osama bin Laden shifting base to Pakistan is now real. He says “the tactic can very well succeed in creating chaos in the region.”

According to the UK-based Sunday Express, Colonel Langton said: “Osama bin Laden has a lot of friends in Pakistan. He might well move there deliberately as the next stage in his campaign. If he made known that he had crossed the border, it would increase the opposition to President Musharraf.”

Quoting the defence expert, the report said: “The risk for the world is civil war in Pakistan.”

The pressure on President Musharraf is mounting with every fresh bout of US air strikes in Afghanistan and Islamic parties taking out violent protests and giving jehad calls against the military regime.

According to Colonel Langton, Bin Laden may already have prepared a list of destinations where he could flee. “Bin Laden already knows that “moving into Pakistan might further his cause and if his calculations went wrong, it would be effectively be the last throw of dice”. ANI