- General (r) Asad Durrani says Musharraf had grounds to launch Kargil operation ‘preemptively’ as one Indian general confessed that plans to occupy new Siachin heights were made
- Claims Nawaz Sharif was not aware of ‘extent’ but nevertheless gave ‘go ahead’
- Says Nawaz had better options than going to Washington for rescue
- Calls Kargil operation Musharraf’s ‘irresponsibility’
LAHORE: Former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director general (DG) General (r) Asad Durrani, in his newly released book, termed the Kargil operation as former chief of army staff (COAS) General (r) Pervez Musharraf’s “obsession”, claiming that even during Benazir Bhutto’s second term in office as the prime minister (PM), Musharraf, as director general of military operation (DGMO), told her “prime minister, we can do that”.
He said that Musharraf relied on the principle of “nuclear immunity” and presumed that India would not be able to do much in response to the Kargil operation, however, he said that this theory was “flawed” in many ways.
Agreeing that 95 percent of the times this theory could have worked if it came to nuclear escalation between Pakistan and India but it did not take into account the severity and magnitude of risk that the remaining 5pc would carry with itself.
The retired general also said that Musharraf failed in assessing that the global community could consider him as “unwise” or “reckless”.
Musharraf was taken by surprise when the world community had responded to his ‘irresponsibility’, the former ISI chief added.
Durrani also said that in the year 2000, one Indian general accepted that India had plans to make a further ingress into Siachin like it did in 1984.
The retired general exclaimed that it seemed that Musharraf’s narrative about the Kargil operation was nothing but a preemptive strike to prevent India.
Speaking about Nawaz Sharif’s involvement, he said that Sharif was unaware of the operation’s “extent” but the former PM had to take political responsibility because he gave the “go ahead” for the Kargil operation.
Durrani maintained that the ousted PM Nawaz Sharif had better options than travelling to Washington and on July 4 in 1999.
The former ISI chief claimed that Pakistan was also in contact with China and the neighbour had asked Pakistan to withdraw since it had “made its point”.
Durrani said that Sharif could have taken advantage of Atal Bajpayee’s call to withdraw the forces since he thought that the issue could be consequential for his party in the next elections rather than asking for American aid.
He also claimed that he had received copies of the tape pertaining to a conversation between Musharraf and Aziz from the Indian high commissioner.
Former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) DG General (R) Dulat claimed that the phone call was made from Beijing in which Musharraf enquired from General (R) Aziz about the situation at home and he said that everything was okay.
When asked about Musharraf’s sacking by Sharif immediately after Kargil, General (R) Durrani said that the former PM wanted to sack him but he was sure that “some saner advisors were holding him back”.
Durrani also claimed that instead of ousting Musharraf, which Sharif eventually did, Musharaf was first offered positions such as chief of joint staff committee.