WASHINGTON, June 1: President Gen Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday that a nuclear war between Pakistan and India was all but unthinkable, the CNN reported.
“I don’t think either side is that irresponsible to go to that limit,” Gen Musharraf told CNN in an exclusive interview, a preview of which was shown on PTV.
“I would even go to the extent of saying one shouldn’t even be discussing these things, because any sane individual cannot even think of going into this unconventional war, whatever the pressures,” CNN online quoted the president as saying.
The president dismissed as “absolutely baseless” charges that Pakistan had moved nuclear missiles towards the border with India.
“That Pakistan ever moved any nuclear asset or deployed its missiles is baseless, absolutely baseless,” Gen Musharraf said in reply to a question. He added: “It was an absolutely baseless accusation that Pakistan ever moved nuclear weapons or deployed nuclear assets, and that holds good even now.
“If India has moved their missiles this is extremely dangerous and a very serious escalation, an extremely serious escalation. The international community must take note of this because you can’t distinguish what is conventional and what is unconventional.
“Let us hope good sense prevails (and) this does not lead to escalation. It has not because we are restraining ourselves, and let Indians not test our patience and restraint because it will be very dangerous.”
The president said: “We’ve called for a no-war pact (with India), that there shouldn’t be any war. We’ve called for denuclearization of South Asia, so we’ve called for reduction of forces.”
Gen Musharraf said he was willing to meet Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on the sidelines of a regional summit next week.
He said he was willing to talk to Mr Vajpayee in Kazakhstan, where both leaders would attend an Asian summit from June 4.
“It depends more on Prime Minister Vajpayee,” President Musharraf said.
“I have no problem with meeting him, I have been saying that all along so that question must be put to him.”
Musharraf said that his country is “against militancy” and “will fight militancy in any form.”
But, the president said, Kashmiri separatists are engaged in “a genuine freedom struggle” to force the implementation of a UN resolution calling for the right of self-determination.
Musharraf insisted that “nothing is happening across the Line of Control,” but noted that “it should not end there.”
“There has to be some movement forward,” he said. “And the movement forward is certainly the issue of addressing, initiating the process of dialogue, and squarely addressing the dispute of Kashmir.”
President Musharraf leaves for Tajikistan on Sunday before the Almaty summit amid
international efforts to end the tense military stand-off with India.
He will hold talks with Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov in Dushanbe before leaving for Almaty, officials said in Islamabad.
The summit — to be attended among others by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Russian leader Vladimir Putin — would be dominated by the India-Pakistan crisis, sources said.
Mr Putin has offered to arrange talks between Mr Vajpayee and Gen Musharraf on the sidelines of the 16-nation Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building measures in Asia.
The Russian leader is expected to meet Gen Musharraf and Mr Vajpayee separately with the aim of brokering a face-to-face session between the two leaders.
Pakistan has already welcomed Mr Putin’s initiative but India has repeatedly rejected any third-party mediation to resolve the long-standing Kashmir dispute.—Agencies
