In remarks that are likely to embarrass Islamabad, the former Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, said on Saturday that Pakistan regarded terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) as “mujahideen” fighting for the “rights” the Kashmiri people.
General Musharraf defended militant groups saying that they were simply fighting for the “freedom” and “rights” of Kashmiris and it was important that the Kashmir dispute was settled.
Public support
“From our point of view, LeT is fighting for the rights of Kashmiris and there is great public support in Pakistan for groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba,” he told NDTV adding that anyone “fighting in your part of Kashmir” was a “mujahideen” for Pakistan.
Asked whether killing innocent people was not terrorism, the former President retorted that Indian Army was also killing civilians. “Isn't Indian Army also terrorist?” he asked.
However, he admitted that the attack on Indian Parliament and the Mumbai bombings were acts of terrorism.
About his remarks to a German magazine last week that Pakistan trained militants groups to fight in Kashmir, he said he did not mean that they were trained during his tenure.
“I didn't say that. I said certain things which were taken as such,” he said pointing out that “mujahideen groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen” came into being in 1989 after the “freedom struggle started in Kashmir.”
‘To say that I was doing this …this argument has to be killed I was nothing at that time. I was just a Brigadier,” he said.
‘Freedom fighters'
Challenged on his description of LeT as “mujahideen,” he insisted that for Pakistan it was a group of freedom fighters.
“Yes, yes,” he said.
Asked about how close India and Pakistan came during his presidency in reaching a deal on Kashmir, he said: “We were as close as drafting a final pact for a solution. Final drafts were exchanged through the back channel and [Prime Minister] Manmohan Singh agreed with my four-point formula.”
