War Will Start Only if India Starts It: Musharraf

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, May 30, 2002

War Will Start Only if India Starts It: Musharraf

A war with India will only happen if India starts it, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said at a press conference Thursday in Islamabad.

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A war with India will only happen if India starts it, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said at a press conference Thursday in Islamabad.

"We will try to avoid a conflict. Conflict will only take placeif it is initiated by India," he stressed this after signing an agreement on an energy pipeline with the leaders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan.

Amid rising tensions between the rival nuclear-armed neighbors,Musharraf said "Pakistan condemns terrorism and wants to live in peace with its neighbors."

"I have conveyed to both the leaders of (Afghanistan and Turkmenistan) that Pakistan is a victim of terrorism, we condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations," he said.

"I have told them that Pakistan believes in mutual coexistence,and wishes to live in peace with all its neighbors, including India," he said.

Feature: "War Will Solve Nothing"

The specter of another conflict between India and Pakistan is again haunting the sub-continent, but more and more people in the country have realized that war will solve nothing.

They recognize the truth that war has never solved any issue and that a war between India and Pakistan will increase the suffering of the people.

Shubha Lal, a second-year student of Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi, said that the first emotion the terrorist attack on a bus and an army camp near Jammu on May 14 aroused was that of retaliation.

But on second thoughts, she realized that retaliation is not a solution. "Terrorists are born of previous wars," she said.

Rajesh Jain, a businessman, said he doesn't want war. "It is not the solution. It will only lead to a waste of money and createmore unemployment," he added.

"The Indian economy is in no shape to shoulder the burden of war. Dialogue is the only solution," Khalsa College Englashi lecturer Himanshu Shekar Chaudhury indicated.

Piyal Mukherjee, a reader from Kolkata wrote to "The Statesman," one of the country's leading paper, "India and Pakistan are at loggerheads since their independence. As a majority of people of these two countries suffer from poverty, the war between the two countries will increase the suffering of the people."

Although several times both countries have engaged in war, nothing tangible has been achieved, he said, adding "Terrorism is a hydra-headed monster. It should be tackled diplomatically."

Another reader, Debashis Sen, also told "The Statesman," "A waris always a hugely expensive affair and it is never desirable whatever the circumstances may be. True, the menace of terrorism is a grave challenge to India as it is to other countries that areaffected. but war is hardly a solution."

"Rather, a war might increase tension and make terrorists even more ruthless. At the moment, a war would be a blunder for both India and Pakistan. True, the rise in terrorist atrocities in Jammu and Kashmir and its rapid escalation is a headache to all ofus. But war is never a right answer," he said.

Meanwhile, T.E. Rajendran, a reader from Chennai, wrote to "TheHindustan Times," one of India's leading newspaper, "An armed conflict is the last thing that India or Pakistan can afford."

"Let our policy makers keep in mind that we are among the poorest nations and a war will take us backward by several years in all spheres of economic development, not to speak of the untoldmisery that will be brought upon the people. Let us tone down the rhetoric and return to negotiations," he noted.

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