The Hindu : `Musharraf playing with contradictions'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 30, 2002

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`Musharraf playing with contradictions'

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI Aug. 29. India today said the latest remarks of the Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, suggest that he would end infiltration only when he ``finds it opportune'' and continue to ``use terrorism as an instrument of State policy''.

``If there was room in further lowering the sincerity and credibility of Pakistan's statements then that space has been found,'' the Foreign Office spokesperson said while commenting on Gen. Musharraf's interview to BBC.

``We do not wish to get into the game of reacting each time Gen. Musharraf makes his habitual pronouncements on the issue of his country's involvement in terrorism directed against India,'' she said in a statement.

``But we cannot fail to note that his declaration to BBC that he has not given any time-frame to the international community with regard to stopping infiltration across the Line of Control (LoC) is coming in the wake of the visit of the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, to Islamabad at the end of last week.''

``Gen. Musharraf continues to play with contradictions by, on the one hand, saying that there is nothing happening across the Line of Control and, on the other hand, admitting that infiltration continues by what he describes as rogue militants.''

India's sharp rejoinder is part of the official assessment that Gen. Musharraf feels emboldened enough to say that some infiltration continues — a clear departure from his past position that nothing was happening on the Line of Control. His statement that he had not put forward any time-frame to end infiltration can only further irritate the troubled relations between the two countries.

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