The opening lines of Mohsin Hamid’s tense and ambiguous novel, spoken by a bearded Pakistani to a barrel-chested American, could just as well be Islamabad addressing Washington. Ever since General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s former military ruler, pledged his country as a pivotal ally in the war on terror after the attacks of September 11 2001, the US and Pakistan have been locked in a strange and ambivalent embrace. Pakistan has been of assistance. The US has been alternately grateful and alarmed.
Evidence that the joint war is not going smoothly – as if any were needed – came again this week when suicide bombers drove a truck of explosives into the Pearl Continental hotel in Peshawar, north-west Pakistan, killing at least 15 and injuring more than 60. It was merely the latest barbarity. Last week 40 died when suicide bombers targeted a mosque; the week before, militants drove a bomb-laden van into a police station in Lahore, killing 35 and injuring 300.
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