NEW DELHI: Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf said on Sunday that his forces had caught India by the throat in the 1999 Kargil war, but a close aide to Prime Minister Narendra Modi pooh-poohed the claim on Monday, saying the world knew India’s true military prowess. 

“I don’t think India would ever be able to forget the three-month-long battle (Kargil war) when our gallant armed forces caught them by the throat,” Gen Musharraf was quoted by Press Trust of India as saying in Karachi on Sunday. 

He was addressing a convention of the youth wing of his party, the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML).

He said that the Pakistani armed forces had caught their Indian counterparts by surprise in Kargil. 

In a brief rebuttal quoted by Doordarshan, India on Monday hit out at Gen Musharraf’s comments on Kargil.

Reacting to the comments, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Dr Jitendra Singh said the world knew about India’s power before and after the Kargil war. According to Doordarshan, he said the world was seeing India as a global power.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2015

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