MM
On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 3:01 AM, Sujeet Bhatt <sujeet.bhatt at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/5779916/Pakistani-president-Asif-Zardari-admits-creating-terrorist-groups.html
>
> telegraph.co.uk
>
> Pakistani president Asif Zardari admits creating terrorist groups
> Pakistan's president has admitted his country created terrorist groups
> to help achieve its foreign policy goals.
>
> Asif Zardari told a meeting of former senior civil servants in
> Islamabad, it was time to be honest about their deployment.
>
> "Let us be truthful to ourselves and make a candid admission of the
> realities," he said. "The terrorists of today were the heroes of
> yesteryears until 9/11 occurred and they began to haunt us as well."
>
> These groups were not thrown up because of government weakness, but as
> a matter of policy. He said they were deliberately "created and
> nurtured" as a policy to achieve some short-term tactical objectives.
>
> His comments amount to an admission that Pakistan trained Islamic
> terrorists to launch attacks on India as part of its long war over its
> claim on Kashmir.
>
> It came as at least 40 people were killed in a suspected US missile
> strike in north-west Pakistan.
>
> Three US drones are believed to have fired missiles at militants near
> Ladha in South Waziristan. It is the third strike in two days and
> follows strikes in which 19 reportedly died.
>
> Mr Zardari first confirmed that many of the Islamic militants now
> waging war against his government were once "strategic assets" in an
> interview with the Daily Telegraph earlier this week.
>
> "I don't think anybody in the establishment supports them any more. I
> think everybody has become more wise than this," he said and confirmed
> the military was now targeting those it had previously used as proxies
> in attacks on India.
>
> Islamic militant groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed,
> have long been regarded as Pakistan proxy forces by diplomats and
> intelligence services but Islamabad has, until now, always denied any
> links.
>
> The LeT is believed to have been created to fight with the Afghan
> Mujahideen against the former Soviet-backed Najibullah regime in Kabul
> and to attack Indian forces in Jammu and Kashmir.
>
> It is believed to have been responsible for the commando attack on
> Delhi's Red Fort in December in which two soldiers and a civilian were
> killed. It was involved with another Pakistan-backed terrorist group
> Jaish-e-Mohammed in the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament before it
> was banned by Islamabad in 2002.
>
> Pakistan terrorists were also behind the 1999 hijacking of an Indian
> Airlines jet which forced the Indian government to release three
> jailed militants, including Masood Azhar, the founder of
> Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was later arrested for
> the murder of Daniel Pearl.
>
> The Indian government believes links between Islamabad and these
> terrorist groups remain intact and prime minister Manmohan Singh has
> accused elements within Pakistan's security apparatus of aiding the
> Lashkar-e-Taiba's commando attack on Mumbai last November.
>
>
> By Dean Nelson, South Asia Editor
> Published: 5:49PM BST 08 Jul 2009
>
>
> --
> My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of the same poverty.
> - Jorge Louis Borges
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