From Publishers Weekly
Nuclear, unstable, fundamentalist, Islamic—these adjectives are often used in frightening combination when the media turns to the topic of modern-day Pakistan, a critical but volatile ally in the fight to eradicate al Qaeda. With the sensibilities of both an insider and a scholar, Abbas, a Harvard fellow and former officer in President Pervez Musharraf’s anti-corruption police force, adds an important measure of sophistication to the popular understanding of Pakistan’s dangers and dysfunctions. His detailed analysis works through the country’s complicated history, starting in 1947 with the wrenching partition of British colonial India and ending with today’s impoverished, graft-addled government, which seems closer to falling into a maelstrom of religious radicalism every day. An important thread running through this history is the way American foreign policy—at times misguided or self-serving—magnified Pakistan’s homegrown ills. During the early 1980s, for instance, Pakistan’s pro-Western popular opinion appeared rock solid. "Only indifference, myopia and incompetence of flawless pedigree could have reversed this," Abbas writes. "But Pakistan and the United States would combine to produce the missing ingredient"—a policy of statewide "Islamization" orchestrated by Pakistan’s then leader, General Zia Ul-Haq, and amplified by Washington’s parallel support of the anti-Soviet mujahideen movement. Abbas offers valuable descriptions of today’s most active jihadi movements in Pakistan. More importantly, he shows how the Kashmir conflict, South Asia’s most aggravated political wound, has come to express numerous, overlapping national humiliations—often underestimated by Washington and exploited by Islamabad. "If Pakistan is to be saved from its future," Abbas concludes, "It must start by coming to a sincere accommodation with India over Kashmir."Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The New York Times
"An engaging book on terrorism's largest growth market: Pakistan."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

About the Author

Hassan Abbas, a former police officer from Pakistan, is currently a visiting scholar at the Project on Negotiation, Harvard Law School and a PhD. candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, USA. His articles have been published in leading Pakistani and U.S. newspapers.

SYNOPSIS

This book examines the rise of religious extremism in Pakistan, and analyzes its connections to Pakistan Army's policies and the fluctuating U.S.-Pakistan relations. It includes profiles of leading Pakistani Jihadi groups with details of their origins, development, and capabilities based on interviews with Pakistani intelligence officials, and operators of the militant groups. The book contains new historical materials on Operation Gibraltar (1965 War with India), conspiracy behind General Zia-ul-Haq's plane crash in 1988, a botched military coup by fundamentalists in army in 1993-4 and lastly about how General Musharraf handled the volatile situation after the 9/11 attacks. Besides General Musharraf's detailed profile, the book evaluates the India-Pakistan relations vis-￯﾿ﾽ-vis the Kashmir conflict, and Dr. A Q Khan's nuclear proliferation crisis. The book offers predictions for Pakistan's domestic and regional prospects.

FROM THE CRITICS

Boston Globe

Abbas, a former Pakistani police officer and one-time adviser to the Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, sheds light on mysteries that the vast majority of American readers have never wondered about: Why did Pakistan's army launch an attack on Kargil Heights, a rocky crag in Indian-held Kashmir, just as peace talks between the two nuclear powers were making progress?... Abbas's book is unique in that he is speaking as a Pakistani to his own people. In its most important form, the book is a truth-telling, undressing heroes, myths, and psychologies that school textbooks in Pakistan lionize. Those readers who had hoped for a policeman's view of Al Qaeda and the inside scoop on militant jihadi groups in Pakistan have to wait until the very last chapters, which spend a great deal of time on the terrorist groups that have taken the biggest toll on Pakistani people: sectarian groups of Sunnis that target Shi'as, and vice versa.

Washington Times

Hassan Abbas, a former officer in Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's anti-corruption police force... has written a highly informative account of his country's radical Islamic groups..

Stephen Philip Cohen - The Brookings Institution

This book not only traces Pakistan's trajectory over the last forty years, but it provides valuable insights into the workings of its establishment, and should be required reading for anyone interested in a deep understanding of this troubled state.

Peter Bergen - Terrorism Analyst, CNN and author of The Holy War Inc.

Inside the Secret World of Osama Bin Laden Hassan Abbas has written a book that will be required reading for anyone hoping to understand the dense thicket of Pakistan's jihadist organizations, and the social and political milieu in which they have flourished. Hassan draws on his wide experience as a senior Pakistani police officer and government official, allied to his experience as an academic, to write a book that is nuanced, authoritative and well written. Any student of Pakistan will find Hassan's work richly rewarding.

Metro West Daily News