India fomenting terror in Pakistan
Local Thursday, October 29th, 2009India is drawing “vicarious pleasure” from Pakistan’s troubles and is “aiding the Taliban” there, Pakistani senator Mushahid Hussain alleged here yesterday, a day after Islamabad made similar claims that have been strongly rejected by New Delhi.
“We have been the biggest victims of terrorism. There is a terror corridor that runs from Iraq into Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan,” said Hussain, who was information minister in the Nawaz Sharif government.
“India is promoting and aiding Taliban in Pakistan and should understand that if it doesn’t stop fomenting terrorism against Pakistan, the corridor won’t stop at the Wagah border (in Punjab) and would very much enter into India,” Hussain said in an interview.
He was speaking on the sidelines of an international conference against terrorism organised by the Jama Masjid United Forum here.
“There is a general viewpoint not only in the establishment and the government (of Pakistan) but also in media circles and among the public that Indian elements in Afghanistan are promoting terrorism to destabilise our country,” said Hussain, an alumnus of the School of Foreign Service in Georgetown University, US.
He echoed the accusation made by Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Monday that India was sponsoring terrorism. India has denied the charge, with Defence Minister A K Antony yesterday calling the allegation “absurd” and “totally baseless”.
At least 200 people have been killed in a wave of militant violence in Pakistan that began with a suicide bombing in Islamabad on October 5 and has been blamed on the Taliban.
Hussain said: “We have shared our concrete evidence regarding Indian armed support to the terror against Pakistan during the Sharm el-Sheikh summit and it is for India to think how it can stop trouble from flowing beyond the Wagah border.”
Hussain is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Pakistan Senate.
“India is drawing vicarious pleasure from Pakistan’s troubles. Some elements in India are using our problems to what they think is their advantage. They are following the Chanakya principle that the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” he said.
Hussain condemned terrorism but asserted that “the menace won’t end until the Kashmir and Palestine issues were solved peacefully and democratically” – a popular line Pakistani leaders have been maintaining when accused of sponsoring terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.
“It is our official and realistic policy that the Kashmir issue has to be solved as per the wishes and aspirations of Kashmiris, as laid down in the UN resolutions,” he said, adding both India and Pakistan have to be “realistic that neither can Kashmir be held militarily nor can we snatch it militarily.”
Asked about military aid from Pakistan to Kashmiri militants, Hussain said: “You ask this to Kashmiris if their struggle isn’t indigenous, popular and genuine.”
The senator welcomed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s readiness to talk to the separatist Hurriyat Conference in Jammu and Kashmir.
“I will welcome it but with cautious optimism. Kashmiris have to be taken aboard the dialogue process. It’s good that the Indian leaders have started doing it,” he said.
Singh said in Thai resort Hua Hin on Sunday that he had held two or three rounds of talks with Hurriyat leaders and they had promised to revert to them. He said he was waiting for them.
Hussain welcomed Singh’s initiative to re-start a dialogue with Kashmiri separatist leaders and “quiet diplomacy” to solve problems in the troubled state.
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on Oct 29 2009. Filed under