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| October 02, 2006 | Monday | Ramazan 8, 1427 |
Musharraf’s Kargil account disputed: PML-N leader launches book
ISLAMABAD, Oct 1: PML-N joint secretary Siddiqul Farooque launched his book ‘Kargil: Adventure or Trap’ on Sunday, disputing President General Pervez Musharraf’s claim that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had been taken into confidence before the Kargil plan was executed.
Farooque’s book came as a rebuttal to President Musharraf’s ‘In the Line of Fire’.
Releasing the book in English and Urdu at a news conference here, the PML-N leader said that the idea of writing the book struck him when he came to know that Gen Musharraf was writing his autobiography.
Even though the actual causes of the ‘Kargil defeat’ and ‘defects in its operational plan’ were no secret to a dominant majority in the armed forces, politicians, the intelligentsia and the masses had been kept in the dark about the bitter facts in this regard, wrote Mr Farooque in the introduction of the 263-page book.
He alleged that Gen Musharraf got hold of a report of the inquiry committee set up by Nawaz Sharif to probe the ‘Kargil debacle’ and toppled the PML-N government so as to avoid a possible court martial in the light of the recommendations of the committee. He, however, did not mention the names of any member of the inquiry committee, only saying that it comprised military officers.
“In order to stop such events from occurring in future, Nawaz Sharif constituted an inquiry committee of military officers which recommended court martial of Gen Musharraf and those responsible for the Kargil misadventure. Besides other steps, Nawaz Sharif also wanted to ensure that in future the military did not take decisions without taking the civil government and the other two services chiefs into confidence. Nawaz Sharif wanted to present this report to the nation when Gen Musharraf toppled his government and stole this report from the PM House,” wrote Mr Farooque, quoting Begum Kulsoom Nawaz.
He claimed that the Indian military knew about the Kargil plan a year before it was put into practice. However, this information was kept secret by the Indian intelligence agencies to catch the Northern Light Infantry (NLI) troops and mujahideen unawares and turn the tables on the Pakistan Army, he added.
On the directives of their political leadership, the Indian military kept the Kargil adventure a complete secret so much so that when Brigadier Surinder Singh, posted in the region, tried to make it public, he was silenced by the Indian army chief, General VP Malik, he said, adding that India planned a comprehensive strategy to trap the Pakistani soldiers and Mujahideen and extract maximum political, diplomatic and economic benefits.
The book also contains excerpts from an alleged taped telephonic conversation between Gen Musharraf (in China) and the then chief of general staff Lt-Gen Mohammad Aziz (in Pakistan) in which they discussed the Kargil plan.
When the then Indian prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, arrived on a two-day state visit to Pakistan by ‘Dosti Bus’, he was aware of Gen Musharraf’s plan, claimed the PML leader. The motive of his visit was to prove it to the world that India wanted to have friendship with Pakistan with a view to achieving durable peace in South Asia, he added.
“Throughout this limited war, Gen Musharraf and his coterie moved heaven and earth to portray this military defeat as a victory,” he wrote.
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