Pakistani militants want to incite Indo-Pak war: Kasuri

LAHORE - On the eve of Indo-Pak foreign ministers meeting slated to take place in Islamabad, Pakistan’s former Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri today urged both the countries not to give up the path of talks, as it would empower terrorists to veto their relations.

Kasuri, who served as Foreign Minister under President Pervez Musharraf’s regime, believes that Pakistan based terrorist want to incite a war between India and Pakistan.

“Terrorists in both countries are striking for their own agenda and one of the agenda in case of Pakistani terrorist is a desire to not just disrupt relations, but if they could cause war between the two countries they would be very happy,” Kasuri told ANI.

He further said: “Al Qaeda wishes to cause war between India and Pakistan and if they can understand advantage of their actions, why can’t our politicians understand the advantages of cooperation.”

Kasuri also said that terrorists are well organized and “we should not underestimate them.”

Mentioning about the recent spate of violence unfolding in Pakistan, he said that terrorism is an ever-spreading phenomena and both countries should cooperate to fight it.

“There are terrorist strike within Pakistan, there are terrorist strikes within India, all of it cannot be laid on the door of the Kashmiris or Hizbul Mujahideen or Lashkar-e-Toiba, it is a phenomena which is spreading that only points out necessity for Pakistan and India to cooperate with each other,” Kasuri stressed.

“I have no doubt if we would cooperate, the state of our relations would be better and we will be able to deal with terrorism effectively,” he added.

Saying that current democratic dispensation has limitations in dealing with the rising tide of terrorism, Kasuri said: “This government also wants good relations with India and I have no doubt on that score. I know what the Foreign Minister wants, President Asif Ali Zardari has on more than one occasion indicated his desire to improve relations with India, so I don’t doubt.”

He further said: “I don’t think government of Pakistan is willingly lenient on terrorism. They have tried to arrest a lot of people in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks case and also arrested Hafeez Saeed.”

Kasuri claimed that during the Musharraf regime both countries were close to clinching a solution to vexed Kashmir issue and all the hard work on the issue was almost completed between the two governments at that point of time.

He is hopeful that talks between Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers which begins on

July 15 in Islamabad will be positive and could produce achievable outcomes. By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)