TO GET TO THE HEADQUARTERS of the Strategic
Plans Division, the branch of the Pakistani government charged with
keeping the country’s growing arsenal of nuclear weapons away from
insurgents trying to overrun the country, you must drive down a rutted,
debris-strewn road at the edge of the Islamabad airport, dodging stray
dogs and piles of uncollected garbage. Just past a small traffic circle,
a tan stone gateway is manned by a lone, bored-looking guard loosely
holding a rusting rifle. The gateway marks the entry to Chaklala
Garrison, an old British cantonment from the days when officers of the
Raj escaped the heat of Delhi for the cooler hills on the approaches to
Afghanistan. Pass under the archway, and the poverty and clamor of
modern Pakistan disappear.
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