Musharraf Appeals for Peace With India in Washington

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, February 13, 2002

Musharraf Appeals for Peace With India in Washington

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Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf made an appeal on Tuesday to India to start the process that would bring peace to South Asia so that both countries could devote themselves to the welfare of their masses who constituted one-fifth of humanity.

Musharraf made the impassioned gesture in a speech in Washington, D.C. the Associated Press of Pakistan reported on Wednesday.

On relations with India, Musharraf said that he desired peace sincerely and he had gone to India where he had reached agreement on the acceptance by New Delhi of the centrality of the Kashmir dispute. However, the agreement got scuttled by the Indian leadership.

He said sidelining Kashmir would be a fallacy. He stressed that the two countries should take a realistic look at all issues, the core issue being that of Kashmir that had caused wars and was at the heart of the present tension.

Musharraf declared that bilateralism had failed. The Shimla Accord had been signed 30 years ago and nothing had come of it.

What was required was mediation and facilitation to resolve the Kashmir dispute, he added.

Musharraf was of the view hat tension was high not because of Pakistan but India.

Musharraf maintained that India had the capability to start a war because of the full deployment of its forces against Pakistan. The intention was perhaps not there but it could change. Pakistan had only reacted in the interest of its security, he said.

He called the Indian missile test untimely and provocative. He also said that he had indications that India might be planning a nuclear test.

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