Terrorism has hurt Kashmir cause: Benazir

NEW YORK, OCT. 14. The former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Ms. Benazir Bhutto, has admitted that there is terrorism in Kashmir and that the menace had damaged the cause of Kashmir. ``Terrorist attacks have damaged the cause of Kashmir, '' Ms. Bhutto was quoted as saying by Pakistan's independent NNI news agency.

She said her Government had resisted the ``militarisation'' of the movement in Kashmir. ``I had put my foot down on creation of private armies and militias because such activities are unconstitutional and destabilising to the State.''

Ms. Bhutto told the agency in Washington yesterday that money was sent from Saudi Arabia by individuals to destabilise her Government as they felt that a woman's rule was ``un-Islamic''. It was only after she was ``thrown out'' that things in Afghanistan went downhill. The Taliban, she said, started as a stabilising movement and initially brought peace to Afghanistan.

Ms. Bhutto admitted that her Government had links with the Taliban chief, Mullah Mohammad Omar, but said as long as her Government was in office, the Taliban did not exhibit the kind of behaviour that had since then come to be associated with them. There was no Osama, ``as he came to be'' during her time and no private militias engaged in the kind of activities that he had since been involved in, she said.

Ms. Bhutto said the madrassas, where the Taliban were trained or where extremist teaching was imparted, were not under the control of the ISI and did not receive their funding from Pakistani sources.

Pakistan's national self-interest lay in a stable Afghanistan with a broad-based government and the Pakistan policy on Afghanistan must be reviewed. She said that under the present circumstances, she had no intention of returning to Pakistan.

- PTI

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Section  : International
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