ASIA-PACIFIC When senior Indian foreign ministry officials air their fears about jihadi dreams of establishing a caliphate in northern India, they are often greeted with disbelief. Such talk sounds as if it belonged more to medieval Islamic history than today’s security threats in south Asia.
That is until the Mehsud clan speaks from its hideout in Waziristan, the formidable mountain stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban. First stop an Islamic state in Pakistan, second stop, attacks on India, is how Hakimullah Mehsud, the movement’s leader, concisely summed up his objectives this week.
