WASHINGTON, Nov 10: US President Barack Obama should have raised the Kashmir issue during his visit to India earlier this week, former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf said on Wednesday. In his address to the Atlantic Council, Mr Musharraf also accused India of using Afghanistan for stirring troubles in Pakistan.

Mr Musharraf said that while he too believed that the Kashmir dispute should be resolved by India and Pakistan, President Obama should have shown some concern for the Kashmiri people during his visit.

“In this unipolar war, when you are the only superpower, you have responsibilities towards every one,” he said.

“President Obama should also have shown some concern for this small strategic partner and visited Pakistan.”

The Kashmir dispute, he noted, had a negative impact on the fight against terrorism and extremism and that was another reason that President Obama should have at least mentioned this issue in India.

Mr Musharraf said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and he were close to resolving the Kashmir dispute.

“We were proceeding reasonably fast. We had worked the parameters and were drafting an agreement. It's a pity that we could not reach the conclusion,” he said. He said that Pakistan's policy of nuclear deterrence was India-centric because India too was focused on Pakistan.

“Pakistan is nuclear because an existential threat exists. No Pakistani will understand the logic why Pakistani nuclear assets are disturbing the world,” he said.

The Indians, he said, had 33 infantry divisions, 25 oriented towards Pakistan border and so were their other troops, their air and naval forces.

“They are a force four or five times and we cannot ignore such threats,” he said. Mr Musharraf said he did not understand why in Afghanistan India had opened consulates close to the Pakistani border in places like Jalalabad and Kandahar.

He also questioned the Indian decision to build roads close to the Pakistan, suggesting that India was using its presence on the border for stirring troubles in Pakistan.

“People who openly oppose the Pakistani state are kept in Kabul. They are received by RAW agents when they travel to New Delhi,” he said. “Now how do you expect the ISI to react? After all, the ISI is there to protect Pakistan's interests.”

The former chief of the army staff disagreed with a journalist who suggested that he had allowed the Taliban to operate a base in Quetta, identified as the Quetta Shura in the US media.

“People who attacked me and tried to kill me, how can I allow them to operate?” he asked. “There is a CIA and an ISI office in Quetta, have they identified where the Quetta Shura is?”

Mr Musharraf said that the US made several major blunders in Afghanistan and the biggest was to try to run the country without the Pakhtuns.

The Afghan government, he claimed, was run by the Panjshiris who were only 8 per cent of the total population while the army was dominated by the Tajiks. “Unless the Pakhtuns are given full representation, this will not work.”

Mr Musharraf said he believed that negotiating with the Taliban from a position of weakness would not work. The US needed to have an upper hand militarily before it could negotiate with the insurgents, he added.

He opposed setting a timeline for withdrawing US troops, arguing that it unsettled other allies.

He disagreed with the suggestion that he had allowed drone attacks but also did not call for ending the attacks.