Handled Kashmir freedom fighters, says Musharraf

Islamabad: Pakistan’s former dictator General Pervez Musharraf has said his administration “managed freedom fighters” in Kashmir but later realised a political process was needed to negotiate the issue with India, a media report on Monday said.

Mr Musharraf, who served as Pakistan’s President from 2001 to 2008 after he threw out the elected government in a coup in 1999, said his government was able to force India to discuss issues that New Delhi was unwilling to negotiate.

“In my tenure as a military chief and President, we were succeeding. We were able to bring India to the negotiating table and to sort out issues that India was not ready to discuss,” he told Dunya News in an interview.

He said his government was managing freedom fighters in Kashmir, and later they realised that a political process was required to negotiate further with India.

Musharraf said a holistic approach and planning was crucial at the moment to curb terrorism in the country, in a possible reference to a series of deadly terrorist attack in Pakistan.