Resolve Kashmir to avoid repeat of Kargil: Musharraf

Resolve Kashmir to avoid repeat of Kargil: Musharraf

India and Pakistan should adopt a "positive" attitude towards the Kargil war and resolve the Kashmir issue to prevent repetition of Kargil-type incidents, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said.

In a detailed reply to an e-mail query sent by an Indian to his Presidential website asking his views on reunification of India and Pakistan as well as his "silence" on Kargil war, Musharraf said the reunification was not possible but the two countries could establish close ties, if the Kashmir issue was resolved.

Denying that he was shy of speaking about Kargil, he said, "I do not want to enter into debate, who won and who lost. Neither your people will accept nor ours, we will end up debating it".

'Indian Army faced problems'

Claiming that India has "misquoted" the casualty figures, which according to him was "very high," he said the reports in the media spoke of several "problems" faced by Indian army during the Kargil conflict.

Musharraf said the two countries should see the Kargil conflict in its entirety.

"I would like to say you must never see Kargil alone. See Kargil in its entire complexity of the dispute of Kashmir in Kashmir. We had three wars," he said claiming Kargil was the result of several "intrusions" by India after Shimla Accord.

"Let us take an optimistic and positive attitude towards it. Stop discussing who won and who lost. What is the future. Resolve disputes so that Siachens, Kargil, Marpola and Chorbatla does not happen again. Let us resolve the dispute of Kashmir then I am sure it will not happen again," he said.

On the reunification query, Musharraf said, "I am afraid that is not possible. We must understand why we were created. Pakistan was created as a separate homeland based on the demand of Muslims of the subcontinent. This process cannot be undone.

However having said that certainly there ought to be co-operation, goodwill, economic and commercial... which needs to be developed so that we have better relations in the future."

Resolving disputes

However, he said that can't be done "unless we resolve core disputes which have denied us this relationship."

"We must resolve core disputes, which is the Kashmir dispute mainly."

"We can not put it under the carpet. We have to resolve it," he said while replying to the question in an interaction with Pakistan Television anchors two days ago.

"The period of conflict management is over and we must resolve this dispute and mover forward on all other issues to bring us close to each other, that is the future," he said. (PTI)

from ndtv.com