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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 Mahmood Ahmed, 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.'

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