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Pakistani President Zardari criticised for calling Kashmir militants 'terrorists'
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by Sanjay Jha | October 6, 2008 at 12:22 am
179 views | 4 Recommendations | 7 comments
Pakistan has been tacitly and morally supporting secession movemevent in Indian held Kashmir and its leaders have sung paeans for terrorist killed in Kashmir valley. Pakistani leaders have always been accused of referring to militants in Kashmir as jehadis, but for the first time current Pakistan President Zardari in a candid interview admitted that the militants operating in Kashmir were indeed terrorists and a major threat. He also said that he is not worried about India's growth as economic superpower.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, chairman of Pakistan's parliamentary committee on Kashmir and president of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, has crit
icised President Asif Ali Zardari for terming militants operating in Kashmir as "terrorists" and for saying that India has never been a threat to Pakistan.
"Zardari is our president but he is inexperienced and needs to know the right choice of words," Rehman told reporters here.
In an interview with Wall Street Journal (WSJ) columnist Bret Stephens, Zardari said the militants in Kashmir were "terrorists", though previous regimes in Pakistan called them freedom fighters. He added that India had never been a threat to his country.
"I believe Zardari's statement that India was never a threat to Pakistan is to have better future relations with the neighbouring country," said Rehman.
In his last press conference, former president Pervez Musharraf had termed the militants as "freedom fighters", saying that Pakistan will continue "moral and diplomatic" support to their cause.
The WSJ quoted Zardari as saying: "I, for one, and our democratic government is not scared of Indian influence abroad."
Zardari also said that he has no objection to the India-US nuclear cooperation pact, so long as Pakistan is treated "at par".
"Why would we begrudge the largest democracy in the world getting friendly with one of the oldest democracies in the world?"
He noted that "there is no other economic survival for nations like us. We have to trade with our neighbours first".
Rehman, who is part of the coalition government in the centre, said he will demand that Zardari change the words he used for the Kashmiri militants.
"I am confident that the president will rephrase his words," he said.
Rehman said that Pakistan considers Kashmir a disputed territory and "Pakistanis have always respected the freedom struggle of their Kashmiri brothers".
Zardari's wife and former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto was accused of removing "Kashmir House" boards from the federal capital when former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi visited Pakistan.
Rehman, who was in opposition then, had stated that Bhutto did so to appease the Indian leader.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (7)
at 08:04 on October 6th, 2008
Sanjay Jha, I like this story. It's good stuff.
well they are not terrorists but men of allah propogating peace in the world and word of Quran.Is violence word of Quran/
at 11:16 on October 6th, 2008
Good to hear some of that symploke happening.
at 13:55 on October 6th, 2008
Excellent stuff. Really was about to comment on your spam note posted on the Disturbia story from Jiefred but was unable to do so because of your spam block. In your commentary however you have not indicated that the original post by the author was spam. I was planning on producing an independent segment on Disturbia. When I scanned the directory for Music and Rihanna the piece from Jiefred was the most recent. So rather than start a new thread I thought I would post a little commentary that would give the original post some depth. I guess that was incorrect. The interesting part is that I did not have the editorial tools to flag the story as lacking in content.
Several days ago one of our staffers used the contact us link at the bottom of the welcome page and requested assistance in using the Highlight function which does not appear to be available when creating a story, there is only a lengthy set of instructions without the actual edititing tool on the menu. I guess this is not really the place for requesting assistance with this feature but since many of the editors here are so diligent in monitoring content this may actually speed along the process.
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at 14:20 on October 6th, 2008
I have sent you a private message. I do not quite understand what you are asking for/commenting on in this post. Please get back to me so we can sort this out and so that I can help you with our highlight tool if that is what you need.
at 16:14 on October 6th, 2008
kashmiri freedom movement has gone far beyond the point where they would be even worried about any kind of support from pakistan. the current movement is driven by people and not by the pakistani-sponsored terrorists or pro-pakistani (mis-) leaders.
PS: zardari is disappointed for not being able to accomplish the 'sara palin hug' so he looks kind of intoxicated at this time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZgaPl3YOgs. i wonder how benazir would have reacted to this! good that she is gone.
at 04:31 on October 11th, 2008
The post defines the thinking of a common man.Good! Will the political leadership in Pakistan with such stand be spared by the pakistan's army ? remember what happens with the Politicians there who propose to settle this matter without army's intevention.