“India trying to create anti-Pak Afghanistan”: Musharraf

NEW YORK - Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf has accused India of trying to create a hostile state in Afghanistan against his country.

“If I’m allowed to be very, very frank, India’s role in Afghanistan is to create an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan,” the Daily Times quoted Musharraf, as saying at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“This is very clear to me. There are consulates in Kandahar and Jalalabad (which) are actually involved in creating trouble in Pakistan. They have no other role,” said Musharraf, and questioned, “Why wouldn’t the consulates be somewhere in the north facing Uzbekistan and Tajikistan?”

The APML leader, who is touring the United States as part of a comeback bid, said that he had seen photographs of Kabul-based “Pakistani terrorists” meeting with intelligence agents in India. “Pakistani terrorists” might be a likely reference to Baloch nationalists, the paper said.

Musharraf also bristled at criticism that Taliban and al Qaeda leaders, apparently including Osama bin Laden, had been able to escape US-led forces in Afghanistan by crossing into safe havens in Pakistan’s border areas.

“Pakistan is trying its best. Why is the responsibility only on Pakistan?” he asked.

“Why is the responsibility of their coming into Pakistan not the fault of Afghan forces and US forces and coalition forces? It should be shared at least 50-50 - we are at fault, you are also at fault,” he maintained. (ANI)