Title: 'Jihad' in Kashmir
not terrorism: Musharraf
Author: Sridhar Krishnaswami
Publication: The Hindu
Date: February 5, 2000
Pakistan's military leader,
General Pervez Musharraf, has drawn a clear distinction between acts of
terrorism such as hijacking passengers and kidnapping tourists and the
Islamic "freedom struggle" in India's Kashmir and other parts of the world.
He argued that to call the 'Jihad' in Kashmir as terrorism was not correct.
"Islam does not preach
terrorism... Islam believes in Jihad, a fight in the path of God. Wherever
Muslims are being victimised or killed, Islam asks all Muslims to come
to their aid", Gen. Musharraf told a group of foreign visitors that included
academics and an American journalist. His comments appeared in The Washington
Post today.
The Jihad that began
in Afghanistan with international support, Gen. Musharraf said, had now
shifted to Kashmir. "It is a freedom struggle. To call those activities
terrorism is not correct." He condemned the hijacking of the Indian Airlines
plane and said that "if the hijackers ever come to Pakistan, they will
be punished according to the law."
The Clinton administration
has thus far been careful in what it has said - that while some of the
groups involved in the hijacking may have ties with Pakistan, there was
no direct evidence of Pakistani hand in the incident. On a more general
level, even while condemning all forms of terrorism and terrorist activities,
Washington has maintained that it would continue to remain engaged with
Pakistan for a number of reasons, regional and global.
Gen. Musharraf said things
that the Clinton administration would have wanted to hear, especially on
Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden. He said he was "willing to co-operate"
on the Osama issue and was weighing the option of going to Afghanistan
to discuss this as well as other issues that concerned the West.
Gen. Musharraf apparently
honoured Osama bin Laden's participation in the anti-Soviet Union resistance
in Afghanistan in the 1980s which was backed by both the United States
and Pakistan; but at the same time opposed terrorism. "Afghanistan was
a noble cause, but if someone supports terrorist actions, whoever he is,
that cannot be supported", Gen. Musharraf was quoted as saying.
