Accusing former prime minister Nawaz Sharif of submitting to foreign pressure, former president and then army chief General (r) Pervez Musharraf on Thursday justified the 1999 Kargil offensive, saying Pakistani forces could have conquered 300 square miles of India had Nawaz not visited the United States.
Rejecting the suggestion that he had wilfully put a “tight lid” on details regarding the Kargil operation, Musharraf told a private TV channel that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was solely to be blamed for the defeat.
“If he (Sharif) had not visited the United States, we would have conquered 300 square miles of India,” Musharraf claimed. “Nawaz politically lost a front which we had won militarily,” he added. He added that the operation was a success militarily as it had exposed the unprepared position of the Indian security establishment. He described the Kargil operation as a localised one, where exchange of fire was a routine matter.
Describing Lt General (r) Shahid Aziz as an imbalanced personality who indulged in unnecessary character assassination, Musharraf said there was absolutely no need to inform everyone about the operation.