India wants to 'create anti-Pakistan Afghanistan': Musharraf

Washington, Oct 7 (PTI) As concerns mounted over
Pakistan's military and intelligence links with terror groups,
the country's former military ruler Gen Parvez Musharraf has
accused India of seeking to "create an anti-Pakistan
Afghanistan".
Describing Afghanistan as a proxy war between India and
Pakistan, Musharraf claimed at a forum here that Afghanistan
was sending its "diplomats, soldiers and intelligence staff"
to India where they were being indoctrinated against Pakistan.
Without dwelling on recent charges by top US military
officials that Pakistan's military intelligence was running
terror groups like the Haqqani network, Musharraf said US
needs to understand Islamabad's "sensitivities about
Afghanistan's relationship with India".
"In Afghanistan, there is some kind of a proxy conflict
going on between Pakistan and India," he said. "India is
trying to create an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan," The ABC news
reported.
Musharraf made the charges as part of the rolling panels
at the Washington Ideas Forum taking place at the Newseum. It
came as President Barack Obama voiced concern over Pakistan's
military and intelligence links with extremists, observing the
US finds this "troubling."
Obama said that Pakistan should realise that a peaceful
approach towards India would be in "everybody's interests."
Without naming the Haqqani network with whom Pakistan's
spy agency ISI is suspected to be having links, Obama
described the extremists as "unsavoury characters".
The former Pakistan military ruler said India did not
seek
to take over Pakistan militarily but charged that it wants to
dominate Pakistan in the area of foreign policy, economic
policy, trade and commerce.
He claimed that when he was in power he had offered
Afghanistan free military training but "not one man has come
to Pakistan for training."
In question-answer, Musharraf was flooded with queries
about complicity of Pakistan army with terror groups.
Musharraf replied that he was convinced that bin Laden
hiding in Abbottabad, Pakistan, was not about Pakistani
government complicity, but a "terrible case of negligence" and
speculated that the worsening US-Pakistan relationship might
be because of the lack of a personal relationship between the
leaders of both countries.
Musharraf said personal relationships with President Bush
and Colin Powell helped ease tensions. He recalled that Powell
said to him, "Let's talk general to general," which resulted
"in straight upright talking" that resolved issues.
"I wonder whether that exists now, that understanding,
that mutual confidence," he said. "Maybe it is not there and,
therefore, yes, there is a total breakdown of confidence and
that is what is harming the relationship." PTI ZH
MNS