New Delhi, October 05: With former Pakistan President Parvez Musharraf admitting that militant groups had been trained to fight in Kashmir, BJP today said he has confirmed what the party had been saying since long and Delhi should now be “more circumspect” in holding talks with Islamabad. “The point is that what we had been saying since long has been confirmed by a former President,” BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters when asked to comment on the statement of Musharraf published in a German magazine.
“Now in the light of this admission, I think the government of India will be more circumspect in doling out dialogue unless Pakistan fulfils its obligation of taking action against militants who are fomenting terror against India from their soil,” he added. The BJP “clearly” believes that no meaningful dialogue can take place unless Pakistan takes action to curb the terror activities directed on India from its soil, he said.
In the first such admission by a top leader of that country, Musharraf in an interview to the magazine has admitted that Pakistan had trained underground militant groups to fight in Kashmir. Musharraf”s candid remarks came days after he announced his return to active politics from London where he has been living in self-imposed exile.
“They (underground militant groups to fight against India in Kashmir) were indeed formed,” Musharraf told German magazine Der Spiegel. Asked why did Pakistan train militant underground groups to fight India in Kashmir, he said Nawaz Sharif”s apathy to the Kashmir issue was one of the reasons, so was the fact that the world had turned a “blind eye” to the issue.
“Yes, it is the right of any country to promote its own interests.
when India is not prepared to discuss Kashmir at the United Nations and is not prepared to resolve the dispute in a peaceful manner,” Musharraf claimed.
“The (Nawaz Sharif) government turned a blind eye because they wanted India to discuss Kashmir,” he said.
—PTI—