'Musharraf's fiction challenges Potter'

Musharraf confuses many, especially when it comes to his commitment to war on terror, says Wall Street Journal.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf memoir In the Line of Fire is threatening to challenge JK Rowling's Harry Potter not only in sales but also in his magic tricks, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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The paper cites "a revisionist recount of Pakistan's 1999 incursion into India's side of Kargil in the Kashmir region - which the world roundly condemned but is described in the book as a "stroke of genius" - as an example of "Musharraf's magical fiction".

"Witness also Musharraf's own mighty spells at work. His omission of the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament led by terrorists based in Pakistan, his refusal to fully disclose intelligence on the Daniel Pearl murder, and his continued protection of AQ Khan - supplier of nuclear secrets to the world's leading terrorists - are all disappearing acts par excellence. It's enough to put Harry's Invisibility Cloak to shame."

But fooled readers needn't feel embarrassed. Musharraf has confused many - especially when it comes to his commitment to the war on terror, the influential US daily said.

He's stepped up to the fight at considerable personal risk, as the title of his book suggests. At the same time, groups with known Al-Qaeda affiliations rest easy within his country's borders and he has effectively ceded parts of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province as a base for the Taliban, it noted.