USA Excuses Pak Terrorism in Exchange for Support

[Guest guest]

Musharraf blames India for Pakistan support to US

 

Sheela Bhatt in New Delhi

 

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Sunday blamed Indian

foreign policy for compelling Pakistan to co-operate with the

United States of America.

 

'India's complete turnaround in its foreign policy has forced

Pakistan to concede all kinds of American demands,' Musharraf

reportedly told a meeting of Pakistan editors.

 

Musharraf explained his government's decision to support

America in its campaign against the Taleban, Hamid Mir, editor

of Pakistan's Ausaf daily newspaper told rediff.com in a

telephone conversation on Sunday night.

 

After the September 11 terrorist attacks in America, Musharraf

said India had declared its support to America. If India allowed

access to its territory to the Americans, the general said Israel

would not have remained far behind, and that would have

created a genuine security risk for Pakistan.

 

Musharraf told the editors India could not be allowed to take

advantage of the situation and this consideration prompted

Pakistan not to support the Taleban. "India ki waje se kaam

kharab ho gaya (India spoilt our case,)" the Pakistan president

said, adding, "India ko corner karne Taleban ko ditch kiya (We

have ditched the Taleban because we wanted to corner India)."

 

Expectedly, Musharraf told the editors that America has

promised him it would not protest Pakistan's support to the

Kashmiri separatists. America, he said, would neither declare

Pakistan a terrorist State nor would it call the mujahideen in

Kashmir 'terrorists.' The US, he added, would not raise

cross-border terrorism in bilateral talks either.

 

Pakistan has sent Lt General Mahmud Khan, director general of

the Inter Services Intelligence agency which created the Taleban,

to Kabul to speak to Mullah Omar, leader of the Afghan

movement. Khan, who returned from the US earlier this week,

will request the Taleban to hand over Saudi fugitive Osama bin

Laden, the primary suspect in last Tuesday's terrorist attacks.

 

The general will also explain why Pakistan is not in a position to

stand by the Taleban, Mir said.

 

Mir, who is bin Laden's biographer, felt the Pakistan public is

"very angry because Pakistan is siding with America." His

newspaper, quoting Saudi intelligence, will publish a report on

Monday that 'Pakistan should protect its nuclear establishment

lest Israel and India connive to bomb its centres of nuclear

power.'