ISLAMABAD, Jan 12: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has declared that no Pakistani will be handed over to India and that anybody involved in terrorism will be tried according to the country’s law.

“Let me say here in categorical terms that there is no question of entertaining the Indian demand of handing it over 20 alleged terrorists,” he said in his address to the nation on Saturday over TV and radio.

He called upon Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to come forward and help create peace and harmony with a view to resolving all disputes through peaceful means and through dialogue.

“I want to remind him (Mr Vajpaee) his own words: give up mind-sets to start a good beginning of relations between the two countries,” he said.

Talking about the increasing tension on borders, the president said the armed forces were fully prepared to defend every inch of the homeland. “We would drop our last blood to defend Pakistan and nobody should have any illusion about it”.

“As chief of the army staff, I want to say that the armed forces are ready to face any challenge as all necessary deployments had been made to thwart any misadventure. Therefore, nobody should dare cross over Line of Control and should not live under any illusion.”

He said Kashmir was an old and serious dispute which needed to be resolved through peaceful means. Gen Musharraf exhorted the United States to force India to stop state terrorism in occupied Kashmir and gross human rights violations there which were being voiced and monitored by international institutions and NGOs. “Kashmir runs into our blood. Therefore, there is no question of having any comprise on it,” he declared. He said Pakistan will continue extending all political, diplomatic and moral support to the people of occupied Kashmir.

“We will continue to pursue our principled stand on Kashmir and it should be resolved in keeping with the wishes of the Kashmiris and under UN resolutions.”

The president said that Pakistan condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. “And we condemn October 1, September 11 and December 13 terrorist attacks,” he said, adding that if anyone was found involved in these incidents, (he) will have to face severe punishment.

“I want to address here the international community, especially the United States, that we are against terrorism and condemn it and now you play a role to resolve the Kashmir dispute,” he said.

Pakistan, he pointed out, was a responsible state in which 98 per cent Muslims lived who believed in living in peace and harmony with all the people of the world.

The president said that ever since his government took power, it had started taking measures to discourage violence and terrorism. “We also interacted with Taliban and advised them to hand over those...involved in terrorism in Pakistan. But unfortunately they did not listen to us and kept providing refuge to terrorists,” he said.

However, he pointed out that Pakistan then sealed the border with Afghanistan. On Feb 15, 2000, he said, the government started its deweaponization campaign and on June 5 called for discouraging terrorism and violence at a Seerat conference. “And then we banned Sipah-i-Muhammad and Laskar-i-Jhangvi on Aug 14 last year.”

He said he had been taking measures against terrorists and religious extremists right from October 1999 and that all that was done without any pressure but only in the larger national interests.

“But things turned serious when terror attack was conducted on Sept 11 in the United States that led to wholesale changes in the world,” he said.

He said Pakistan decided to join international coalition against terrorism on principles and “our decision proved correct as majority of the people of Pakistan had supported my government on that account.”

“I am proud of having the support of my people for joining international coalition against terrorism,” the president said. But he regretted that some people did not accept that and started misleading the people.

“We have some ulema who only consider themselves Muslims and believe others are non-Muslims and I would ask them to stop becoming ‘thekedars’ of Islam,” he said, adding that he wanted to ask them as to why they got so many people killed in Afghanistan.

The president said that innocent and peace-loving Pakistanis could not be fooled by religious extremists any more.

He assured that klashnikov and TT culture will be eliminated to have peace and harmony among all religious sects of Pakistan.

Gen Musharraf regretted that image of the Muslims was like that of uncivilised, uncultured and foolish people which needed to be changed. “We need to educate our people, we need to provide them jobs and this job will be done by my government”.

He said those who set up Afghan Defence Council did not do any service to Pakistan and Islam rather they got hundreds of innocent Pakistanis killed by sending them to take part in the so-called jihad in Afghanistan.