Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The United States has refused to comment on the recent admissions of the former Pakistani military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, who in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, said that Pakistan, a close ally of the U.S., trained underground militant groups to fight against India in Kashmir.
Asked to comment on Musharraf’s utterances, PJ Crowley, the State Department spokesman, replied with an emphatic, “No (comments).”
Crowley avoided addressing the issue of whether it can be labeled a case of state-sponsored terrorism when the former (10 year) president of Pakistan makes the statement that he trained terrorists to fight against other countries.
Crowley told journalists, “That’s a very sweeping kind of question I just can’t address here.”
In 1999, Pakistani soldiers and Kashmiri militants infiltrated positions on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC) border, which serves as the de facto border between the two nations, triggering the Kargil War.
Commenting on another statement from Musharraf in which he said he had no regrets for the Kargil intrusion by Pakistan, which led to the armed conflict with Indian in 1999, Crowley noted, “This is an issue between Pakistan and India. It is important. There have been successful discussions between Pakistan and India on this subject in recent years.”
“Some of those discussions – very fruitful discussions – occurred between former governments of India and Pakistan. This is an issue that we hope that the two sides can address and resolve, but this is obviously an important bilateral issue between the two governments,” he added.
On the question of how the U.S. views the announcement by Musharraf to run for office in 2013, Crowley said, “It’s a long time between now and 2013. We are engaged deeply with the current civilian government. We’re working hard with this government to address the immediate aftermath of the flooding and the ongoing security challenge that affects Pakistan and the United States.”
View full post on Politics Stories