Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says he had no choice but to switch support from the Taleban to the US-led war on terror.
In his memoirs "In the Line of Fire" released Monday, he also says he feared a possible Washington-backed Indian incursion into disputed Kashmir because India had already offered its help in the war on terror.
General Musharraf acknowledges that Pakistan, the United States and Saudi Arabia had assisted in the rise of the Taleban after the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan. After that, he says, the United States abandoned Afghanistan and it was in that vacuum that Osama bin Laden became stronger.
But after the September 11, 2001 attacks, General Musharraf realized that continued support for the Taleban and ties with militant networks would set Pakistan on a collision course with Washington.