NEW DELHI: Indian intelligence had warned Pakistan about the first assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf in December 2003, claims a new book by a senior Pakistani journalist Zahid Hussain.

In Frontline Pakistan, Mr. Hussain claimed that the December 14, 2003 attempt to kill Gen. Musharraf by blowing up a bridge used by his vehicle in Rawalpindi was the work of the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), a group formed by cleric Masood Azhar, freed by India after the IC-814 hijacking in December 1999.

``Ironically, it was Indian intelligence that had warned Musharraf of the first attempt to kill him by blowing up the bridge," the book said, stating that some two dozen Pakistan Air Force personnel were part of a clandestine JeM cell to assassinate the President.

(Top Indian officials, familiar with the events of December 2003, confirm that Mr. Hussain's account of a warning being passed on by Indian intelligence agencies to Pakistani authorities relating to Gen. Musharraf, is accurate).

Agencies cooperate

Interestingly, this information comes as the formal anti-terrorism mechanism (ATM), set up by the two countries last year, meets for the first time on March 6 and 7 in Islamabad.

It shows that Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies, despite their stated antagonism to each other, have cooperated in the past.

Mr. Hussain, who writes for the Pakistani monthly Newsline, also paints a picture of a rather helpless Gen. Musharraf, whose orders to his Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, on shutting down of terrorist training camps were not followed.

``Intriguingly, the Kotli camp, run by the JeM, had continued to function under the ISI supervision despite Musharraf's orders to close down all such facilities. [When Musharraf learned that it was still functioning, he sacked Major-General Khalid Mahmoud, then the director of the ISI's Kashmir cell]," the book stated.

Support for Taliban

At the same time, the author claimed that Gen. Musharraf while quick to abandon support for the Taliban after the September 2001 terrorist attacks, was reluctant to break ties with militants engaged in a ``holy war'' in Kashmir.

Tried to gain leeway

``In fact, Gen. Musharraf had sought to use his country's broad cooperation with the United States to gain some leeway for continuing Pakistan's proxy war in the disputed Himalayan State.

He tried to draw a fine line between what he described as `freedom fighters' and terrorists.

But America was not interested in such distinctions.''

According to the book, Pakistan's decision to withdraw support caused a ``setback'' to the militancy, but did not bring it to an end.

``The militant infrastructure remained intact and outlawed groups continued working, either under new banners, or merged into others.''

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