Musharraf with supporters

Corcoran: When General Pervez Musharraf seized power two years ago, he was hailed as the saviour of a nation on the brink of economic and political collapse.

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But Pakistan is an Islamic state -- at this grassroots level there's strong support for the Taliban and bin Laden, and the crowds that cheered the self appointed President may soon condemn him as a traitor to Islam.

Musharraf

Musharraf: The carnage in New York and Washington has raised the struggle to a new level. Pakistan has been extending cooperation to international efforts to combat terrorism in the past, and will continue to do so in the future.

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Bush

Bush: We will the give the Pakistani government a chance to cooperate and to participate, as we hunt down those people who committed this unbelievable, despicable act on America.

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Musharraf in helicopter

Corcoran: The pressure is now on the action man general. George Bush made an offer he couldn't refuse. Convince the Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden or else.

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It's a dangerous course for Musharraf, who now also risks alienating fundamentalist generals within the army's own ranks.

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Interior madrassa

Near Pakistan's frontier with Afghanistan, lies a campus with a difference. And both the Taliban and Pakistan's military take a keen interest in how its students fare.

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This is Pakistan's largest religious school -- or madrassa. The two and a half thousand students are recruited from the poorer of Pakistan, Afghanistan and beyond.

Super: Sami-Ul-Haq

Madrassa Principal, Peshawar

Samui: Fundamental Islamic teaching says all the world's Muslims are brothers -- they belong to one nation. Borders, passports and visas no not exist in Islam.

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Students at madrassa

Corcoran: Starting as young as six, the students here spend eight years living and learning the ways of fundamentalist Islam. Many of the graduates destined to be cannon fodder for the jihad, or holy war, being waged over the border.

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Rashid: When the Taliban launch an offensive, they normally ask religious leaders in Pakistan to send their madrassa students to help them out. And so you have spurts of maybe two, three thousand

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Rashid

Super: Ahmed Rashid

Far Eastern Economic Review

young men, boys, going across the border, helping the Taliban out for a specific offensive and then coming back.

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Students

Madrassa student: Get lost deadbeat! Is this a madrassa or a film studio? Don’t you have any shame?

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Corcoran: The Taliban isn't the only career opportunity for the angry young men of the madrassas.

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Pakistan Army Office Corps

They're also being recruited to the elite ranks of the Pakistan Army Office Corps.

Rashid: Well, I think, you know, there has been a phenomenal growth of Islamic fundamentalism within the military, and this is reflected now even within the senior officers

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Rashid

who are in general headquarters. And I think, you know, there are senior officers who are extremely close to the fundamentalist groups in Pakistan, who would like to see a much more Islamic Pakistan.

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Taliban with tanks and guns

Corcoran: And nowhere is this axis between fundamentalist and military more evident than in Afghanistan. Long time observers of this conflict say the Taliban is a creation of Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI, who anointed the Talibs to enforce a Pakistan controlled peace -- and end the anarchy that consumed Afghanistan in the mid-'90s.

Rashid: Pakistan intelligence is very much part of the government, and government policy has been to support the Taliban, give them backing, give them advice, give them help in various material fields, where they may be lacking.

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Rashid

So the ISI has been carrying out government policy as such.

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Soldiers in Kashmir

Corcoran: A thousand kilometres to the east lies another battlefield -- Kashmir. Pakistan and India have contested ownership of this Himalayan state for more than half a century.

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Pakistan's efforts to control Afghanistan are based on the strategy of maintaining stability in the rear, so they can concentrate on this fight -- confronting archenemy India.

For the Pakistani soldiers, this is a holy war -- Islam against India's Hindu nationalist rulers.

Mujahadeen: Kashmir is a war in defence of Pakistan! Kashmir is a war to terminate the idol worshippers!

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Corcoran: This brand of fundamentalism, with madrassa students fighting holy wars in Afghanistan and Kashmir, has also taken hold inside Pakistan itself.

Kashmiris outside mosque

Until recently, the stalls of the Kashmiri extremists were a regular fixture outside the largest mosque in the capital, Islamabad. Among the spruikers, young fighters from the Kashmiri group, Harkut ul Mujahadeen, declared a terrorist group and part of the bin Laden organisation by the United States.

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Harkut ul Mujahadeen

Corcoran: Who is your leader?

Harkut: Osama bin Laden.

Corcoran: This poster -- tell me what it says.

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Harkut: Have faith in God -- fight the holy war alongside the prophet.

Musharraf in office

Corcoran: But last year, when we spoke to him, perhaps already fearful of angering the Americans, General Musharraf was not prepared to acknowledge the obvious.

Musharraf: First of all, we wouldn't like to have Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Why would he come to Pakistan? I wouldn't like to have him here at all.

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Corcoran: His group operates here quite openly at mosques, though.

Musharraf: No. The group doesn't operate in Pakistan.

Harkat headquarters

Corcoran: But just a short drive from the general's official residence, we found Harkat headquarters -- the group he claims doesn't operate in Pakistan.

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Its leader, Fazal ur Reham Qhalil, had just returned from a briefing with bin Laden. He agreed to talk, although fearful of assassination by the CIA, refused to be identified on camera.

Qhalil: At present our aims are to defeat the Indian Army in Kashmir. We ourselves do not know why America is annoyed with us.

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Rashid

Rashid: They really have an almost different agenda. It's a much more Islamic agenda; it's a much more Islamic agenda rather than, if you like, a Kashmiri nationalist agenda. And I think a lot of these groups are out of hand. I don't think they're being controlled by anyone.

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bin Laden supporters

Corcoran: Even after the terrorist outrage last week, militants in Pakistan continue to support bin Laden. The dilemma for Musharraf is whether he can afford to openly move against Islamic extremists without alienating crucial supporters in his own government.

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Musharraf visits mosque

Shortly after seizing power, Musharraf and his generals gathered to pray. He once told me that he's not a particularly religious man -- a curious admission for the leader of an Islamic state. But now, with the military might of the United States trained on his neighbourhood, Perez Musharraf may well be seeking some divine guidance.

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