SRINAGAR, Nov 29: Non-Kashmiris fighting Indian troops in the disputed territory are not freedom fighters but terrorists, former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto said in an interview published Thursday.

“Let me clear here that non-Kashmiris are not freedom fighters and indigenous Kashmiris are fighting for their freedom,” Bhutto told the Greater Kashmir, a daily in the Indian-administered territory.

“I also call non-Kashmiri militants as terrorists,” she told the newspaper in an interview from New Delhi, where she is on a private visit.

Benazir had been asked about India’s stand that Pakistan supports “cross-border terrorism” in the form of Islamic militants crossing the disputed border to target Indian forces.

Pakistan considers the militancy in Kashmir part of an indigenous drive for self-determination.

Benazir claimed her position may eventually be adopted by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, noting that she was ahead of Musharraf in breaking ranks with Afghanistan’s Taliban.

“What I say first is followed by Musharraf later,” Bhutto said.

Benazir said she opposed hardline Kashmiri groups such as Lashkar-i-Taiba “which are trying to hijack the Kashmir movement.”

“We believe the people of Kashmir should be given right of self-determination. They should choose their own future,” she said.

Bhutto called for nuclear-armed India and Pakistan to resolve through dialogue all issues, including Kashmir, to avoid a repeat of conflicts such as the two-month confrontation in 1999 in Kashmir’s Kargil district.

“We certainly want to avoid conflicts like Kargil. We do not want it (the hostilities) to turn into nuclear war,” she said.

Kashmiri freedom fighters criticised Benazir’s comments.

Aasiya Andrabi, a female freedom movement leader, said that Bhutto, “who knows nothing about Islam, has no right to pass comments against the Mujahidin.”—AFP