International

It's offensive deployment: Musharraf

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD April 26. The Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, has ruled out any unilateral withdrawal of troops in the standoff with India.

In an interview to the Pakistan English daily, Dawn, Gen. Musharraf has maintained that he would not take even one per cent chance on national security matters. In his interview to The Hindu in the last week of March, he had said that if the Indian troops wanted to be at the border for five years, the Pakistan Army was prepared to meet the situation.

The panel of Dawn journalists asked Gen. Musharraf why Pakistan could not withdraw unilaterally to gain moral ascendancy. The argument was that since the U.S.-led coalition troops were in the region and even in Pakistan, the possibility of India crossing the limits did not exist.

Gen. Musharraf said India had resorted to "offensive deployment''. If the Pakistan military was not alert, there were chances that many things could happen along its borders and the Line of Control. "Our deployment was aimed at covering every thing.''

Asked why the Indians were persisting with the military build-up, Gen. Musharraf said that it was perhaps "to pressure us. (But) We are not coming under pressure. Perhaps their decision was misjudged. They perhaps want to bleed us economically. They are asking a way out but I am not providing that. They have closed the door, let them open it''. He said the armed forces would defend the country to the last.

Gen. Musharraf did not agree with the suggestion that there could be a parallel between Pakistan's deployment along the Afghanistan border to check the influx of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda men and the Indian deployment along the Pakistan borders, possibly to stop their infiltration into India. "No, not at all'', he said.

Indians had erected a fence along the international borders, except in some parts in the desert. "There is no possibility of anyone crossing, except through the gates.'' In response to a question on India's attempts to erect similar fences along the ``working boundary'' between the Ravi and the Chenab corridor and the LoC, he said: "We don't allow them because we consider it a violation.''

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