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Musharraf had brought Kargil plan to me: Benazir

By a correspondent | June 25, 2003 23:08 IST

Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto has revealed that President Pervez Musharraf had brought the Kargil plan to her when she was the prime minister and he the Director General of Military Operations.

"Kargil was an absolute disaster," Benazir said in an exclusive interview with Third Eye Television.  "I asked Gen Musharraf what would happen when the Kargil plan was put up to me and he said he would put the flag of Pakistan on the Srinagar Assembly."

She said she vetoed the plan because she knew that 'ultimately we would have been asked to go back to where we were and that's exactly what happened'.

"So, I wish they had listened to what I had said at that time and not got lost in the brilliance of the military strategy," she said.

During her tenure, she said, there were no non-Kashmiri groups involved in the Kashmiri insurgency.  

"Yes, Kashmir was an issue during my tenure. But during my tenure there were certain differences," she said. "For example there was no attack like the Bombay blasts or the attack on Indian Parliament. The second issue is that there were no non-Kashmiri groups involved in the Kashmiri insurgency," she said. 

"It is under Musharraf's watch that the Taliban have regrouped. And it is under Musharraf's watch that the home grown militants are dictating the foreign policy of Pakistan. Where we have incidents like Kargil and we have incidents like the Indian Parliament attack and we have incidents where the housing colony of wives and children of military officers in India are blown up," she said. 

Asked how she would have responded to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's peace efforts, she said, "We (PPP) would have taken to task the home grown militants and simply not allowed them to dictate Pakistan's foreign policy agenda by doing what they want and when they want. In fact we would have been deeply concerned about the fact that Al Qaeda people are turning up in our country. And we would have made the situation very difficult for them to either seek refuge in Pakistan or for the Taliban to regroup in Pakistan or for our own homegrown militants to use Pakistan as a base for launching attacks on other countries."


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Number of User Comments: 10




Sub: As if the ISI was not helping militants then

Does Benazir want to convey that during her tenure there were no militants. Kashmiri or non-Kashmiri... terrorissts are terrorists. You cannot label them. Ofcourse one ...


Posted by reader





Sub: the fect that come

as mrs bhutto says that general was prapose kargil issue in her tenure is proved that general musha... has know the tererist lenguage only he ...


Posted by v s sisodia





Sub: Kargil- Exposed!!!

At last, somebody is telling the truth. As we know from long time "Sathyameva Jayathe", so be it(AMEN)


Posted by Arun





Sub: trustworthy?

Benazir might be politically correct... maybe eyeing her own political gains... but can indians trust on what pakistani politicians openly state? Will these statements make ...


Posted by Pradyumna Joshi





Sub: kargil was a disaster:benazir

my dear Madame, when u were the PM, all the time i used to see u on the Pak TV lambasting India for one thing ...


Posted by murthy




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