Speaking at the Washignton Ideas Forum, Pakistan’s former president General Pervez Musharraf 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 in Washington 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 the 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. India is trying to create an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan,” he told ABC news in an interview.
He claimed that when he was in power he had offered Afghanistan free military training but “not one man came to Pakistan for training.”
Responding to a query about the complicity of Pakistan army with terror groups, Musharraf said that bin Laden hiding in Abbottabad was not about government complicity with terrorists but a “terrible case of negligence.” He speculated the worsening US-Pakistan relationship might be due to the lack of personal relationship between leaders of both countries.
Musharraf said personal relationships with former President George Bush and former US Secretary of State 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.
