A rchive Date
[ 30-12-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Pakistan ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2002/12/30/8542-ap.html
Pakistan was ready for nuclear war: Musharraf
Mon, December 30, 2002
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said Monday that he had been prepared to use nuclear weapons if neighbour India crossed into its territory earlier this year when tensions were at a peak.
"I personally conveyed messages to (Indian) Prime Minister Vajpayee through every international leader who came to Pakistan, that if Indian troops moved a single step across the international border or Line of Control, they should not expect a conventional war from Pakistan," he told Pakistani air force veterans.
Tensions between India and Pakistan peaked earlier this year when both sides sent troops to their shared border after a deadly attack on the Indian Parliament last December. New Delhi blamed Islamabad, accusing Pakistan's spy agency of masterminding the assault that killed 14 people.
Pakistan denied the charge.
International diplomacy was set in motion to bring the two nuclear neighbours back from the brink of war. And in recent months it appeared that tensions had eased, with both sides saying they have withdrawn troops from the border and stepped back from their previous war footing.
Both India and Pakistan say they possess a minimum nuclear deterrent, although it is not known how many nuclear devices or type of weapon each country possesses.
"We have defeated our enemy without going into war," Musharraf told the gathering of veterans and serving members of Pakistan's air force.
Both Pakistan and India possess ballistic missiles that are capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear warheads and are capable of hitting deep within each other's territories.
The South Asian neighbours exploded tit-for-tat underground nuclear tests in 1998.
The world condemned the tests and put sanctions on both countries. But the economic penalties were lifted after Pakistan became a key ally of the anti-terrorist coalition following the Sept. 11 attacks.
The South Asian neighbours share a 2,900-kilometre border, a section of which is the Line of Control that divides Kashmir. Both claim the region in its entirety and have fought two wars over their dispute.
A third war was fought over Bangladesh, or what was then East Pakistan.
The simmering Kashmir dispute dates back to partition of the subcontinent when Pakistan was created in 1947 as a homeland for Muslims of the region. Pakistan wants Kashmiris on both sides of the disputed border to vote whether a united Kashmir should belong to India or Pakistan.
India rejects the vote and accuses Pakistan of backing militants who have been waging a bloody secessionist uprising in Indian Kashmir since 1989 that has killed more than 61,000 people. Militants want either outright independence or union with Islamic Pakistan. Indian Kashmir is India's only Muslim majority state in the predominantly Hindu country.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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