NEWSLINKS US EDITION SOUTH ASIA COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
"What Gen Musharraf wanted to know was how Washington could guarantee that India wouldn't wait for some new incident to occur, then claim that it was backed by Pakistan and use it as a pretext to go to war," the New York Times said quoting his aide.
The general's reasoning was: 'What if some outraged Kashmiri takes a Kalashnikov and shoots an Indian politician or puts a bomb in a parking lot? Is Pakistan going to be held accountable every time anybody picks up a weapon? Is Washington saying that all freedom struggles, everywhere, can be suppressed under the guise of the war on terrorism?' the report said.
In a report from Peshawar, the daily said the questions illustrated the narrow, hazardous course that the general must steer to make Pakistan what he calls 'a dignified and responsible nation' in which Islamic extremism and bloodshed will cede to caution tolerance and good-neighbourliness, especially with India.
Musharraf is under strong pressure from the US and Britain to totally renounce terrorism in Kashmir, something India has long sought.
Now, he again courts danger, or even political suicide, the report said.
Supporting Kashmiri Muslims fighting Indian rule is a national cause in Pakistan, not a sectarian one like the fate of the Taliban, it said.
After a brief visit from British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Musharraf again strongly condemned terrorism, though he continues to consider militancy in Kashmir by local groups not as terrorism but as a fight for freedom, the paper said.
Whether Musharraf can satisfy India and avert a war with India is not clear, but he cannot be seen to abandon the Muslims of Kashmir, it said.
After the September 11 attacks on the United States, the General had to tell his nation that he was siding with Washington and abandoning the Taliban in Afghanistan, a stance that risked retaliation by Islamic extremists.
"There is no question that we do have a problem with extremism in this country, and we cannot deny that there is a monster in our midst that has arisen in the past decades," Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar had said in an interview.
Yet Musharraf can also not appear to be bowing to India's will, particularly when many Pakistanis believe that evidence for the involvement of Kashmiri militants supported by Pakistan in the December 13 attack on the Indian Parliament is thin.
RELATED REPORT: India awaiting 'concrete' Pak action against terrorism
Tell us what you think of this report
Call India
