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| A freedom fighter is different from a terrorist: Musharraf | | | New Delhi | September 27
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has spoken out against the "broad-brush treatment" of "equating freedom struggle in Indian-held Kashmir with terrorism" in his memoirs, even as the two countries go about establishing a joint mechanism to fight terrorism.
"The West rejects militant struggles for freedom too badly. The US and Europe too often equate all militancy with terrorism; in particular they equate the struggle for freedom in Indian-held Kashmir with terrorism," writes Musharraf in his recently published memoirs.
Musharraf's "In the Line of Fire: A Memoir," launched Monday night in the US, has climbed up the bestseller lists and hit Indian bookstores Wednesday.
If India was optimistic about a change in Pakistan's approach towards terrorism directed against India, Musharraf makes his sympathies clear for "freedom fighters struggling for liberation" in India-controlled Kashmir.
"Pakistan has always rejected this broad-brush treatment. We demand that terrorism be seen "in all its form and manifestations," says Musharraf, while underlining that "a man can be a legitimate freedom fighter in one context and a terrorist when he does something else."
"This is a serious statement, because when states kill innocent civilians in an effort to crush struggles for freedom, we call it "state terrorism," says Musharraf, accusing New Delhi, by implication, of sponsoring state terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.
"Pakistan's position becomes more difficult to sustain, however, when the mujahideen fighting for freedom in Indian-held Kashmir are guilty of involvement in terrorist activities in other parts of India and around the world," says Musharraf, who ousted democratically elected leader Nawaz Sharif in a military coup seven years ago.
And then comes self-congratulatory utterance about sustaining the peace process between India and Pakistan.
"My efforts towards rapprochement with India and the significant thaw in our relations have saved Pakistan to a large extent from the blame of abetting what the world calls terrorism and we call a struggle for freedom in Indian-held Kashmir."
Distancing the Pakistani state from acts of terrorism - a charge New Delhi has often hurled against Islamabad - Musharraf asserts that the fringe group of extremists in Pakistan are indoctrinated into terrorism by a combination of vested interests and socio-economic deprivation.
India and Pakistan decided to set up a joint institutional mechanism to cooperate in the fight against terrorism after a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Musharraf in Havana early this month. The talks between the two leaders lead to the resumption of the peace process between the two countries, which were suspended after the July 11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. |
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