Democracy is the weakest link between the West and the Islamic world. The Taliban infiltration into the prosperous Arghandab district near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, following a major jailbreak, proves this yet again. A token parliamentary democracy was brokered by the United States of America in 2004, three years into its relentless war on terror. Since then little else has been achieved. Despite elaborate reconstruction projects, with leading US companies as stakeholders, civic amenities continue to be abysmal, law and order precarious, and the Taliban the biggest threat to governance. The attempt to curb the poppy trade has not only hit the rural economy, but also provoked many farmers to turn to the Taliban for support and sustenance. The present reprisal has shattered even the illusion of political stability, sending the US army, Nato and Afghan forces back to Square One. These battle-weary troops are now locked in a conflict that has turned into a kind of blind man’s buff; the source of the war they are fighting does not remain confined to Afghanistan. As long as Pakistan continues to harbour Taliban activities, no military offensive will be able to stop insurgency in Afghanistan. The root of this mutual mistrust is a legacy of British imperialism that began with the setting up of the disputed Durand Line dividing the two nations. The Taliban have never recognized this international border, claiming the Pashtun and Baluch regions in Pakistan as their own. Between 9/11 and the fall of Pervez Musharraf, loyalties have become more fractured, layered, even volatile.

Mr Musharraf’s servile allegiance to George W. Bush translated into a crackdown on Taliban outfits in the bordering areas. The present dispensation, led by the Pakistan People’s Party, has a more non-interventionist policy on radical Islamism. Over the past few weeks, it has entered into a series of truces with tribal leaders, preferring to put an end to suicide-attacks carried out in Pakistan as retaliation to its pro-US policies, even at the risk of annoying Nato. This move might bring some twisted credibility to Asif Ali Zardari, but for India, it looms like a menacing shadow. Already, the new army chief, Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, who is Mr Musharraf’s successor, has relaxed his control over cross-border terrorism in Kashmir. A cordial friendliness with the Taliban hardly promises a better future.