Secret tapes bare the strategy of a state within a state
Dinesh Kumar
The Times of India
June 12, 1999
Title: Secret tapes bare the strategy of a state within a state
Author: Dinesh Kumar
Publication: The Times of India
Date: June 12, 1999
In a dramatic development, the government on Friday pulled off a major
coup by presenting scripts of two taped conversations between the
Pakistani army chief, General Parvez Musharraf, and his chief of
general staff, Lt. Gen. Mohd. Aziz, which clearly reveal the extent of
the Pakistani army's involvement in the aggression committed in the
Kargil sector.
Among the significant number of things that the taped conversation
between the two senior army officers revealed were:
* How the Pakistani army was still a state within a state and
continued to play a dominant role in the governance of the country;
* How Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was apparently never in
the picture about the incursions and learnt of the developments much
later,
* How the two officers discussed and decided on the agenda of
Pakistan's foreign minister Sartaj Aziz during his forthcoming talks
with his Indian counterpart Jaswant Singh,
* The Pakistani army's strategy behind changing the Line of Control,
* Proof that it was indeed the Pakistanis who shot down the Indian Air
Force Mi-17 helicopter and that, too, in Indian territory.
Interestingly, the taped conversations, played at a packed news
conference ad-dressed by external affairs minister Jaswant Singh here,
date back to May 26 and May 29 while Gen Musharraf was still in
China. In both tapes, the conversation took place when Lt. Gen. Aziz
had called up the Pakistani army chief from Pakistan. The tape
clearly records the room details (number 83315) of the place where Gen
Musharraf was staying while on his week-long visit to China.
Although no details were given on how the government managed to
procure the tapes, Mr Singh made it dear that the voices of the
Pakistani army officers had been authenticated and that this was only
a sample of what the government had as further proof of the Pakistani
army's involvement in the aggression.
The conversation reveals that Mr Sharif had apparently complained at a
military briefing that he had got to know of the incursion only around
May 19 when Pakistani corps commanders had been informed about it.
This holding back of information has been attributed to the need for
"total secrecy" in order to "ensure success".
In their conversation, the officers discussed and then decided that
during the foreign minister-level talks, Mr Aziz "must give no
understanding or commitment on the ground situation he should not even
accept a cease-fire, that we don't know (anything) but there is no
justification about tension along the Line of Control (LoC)".
Gen Musharraf then instructed Lt. Gen. Aziz to spell out the line to
their foreign minister that the Pakistani army had always been sitting
in the current area of incursion, that no post had been attacked or
taken, that "we are sitting on the same LoC for a long period". Lt.
Gen. Aziz had then suggested exploiting the fact that the LoC had not
been demarcated under UN verification, saying, "This is their
(India's) weakness."
Clearly revealing that the Mi-17 had been shot down (on May 27) "in
their (Indian) area", Lt. Gen. Aziz added, "We have not claimed it.
We have got it claimed through the mujahideen." To this, the
Pakistani army chief replied, "Well done."
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