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Wednesday,
December 26, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Shed superiority complex, Musharraf tells India Islamabad, December 25 “The same was said by Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah to Indian journalists in March 1947,’’ General Musharraf said at a function in Karachi to celebrate the 125th birth anniversary of the founder of Pakistan. The President did not make any direct reference to the ongoing Indo-Pak confrontation. General Musharraf, however, said he wanted to repeat what the Quaid had stated in 1947. He said the custodians of the country’s honour were fully prepared to meet all the challenges confronting the nation. Asserting that Pakistan is a “responsible” state of 140 million people with nuclear capabilities, President Pervez Musharraf said he would not allow any bigoted extremist to derail his country which was ready to face both internal and external challenges. In a significant speech coming days after countries like the USA and Britain had asked him to rein in fundamentalist and terrorist outfits in the wake of a similar Indian demand, General Musharraf said, “no bigoted extremist will be allowed to derail us.” Without directly referring to the tension between India and Pakistan over the involvement of Pakistan-based militant groups in the recent terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament, he said, “We confront external and internal challenges. But let me assure my countrymen, that your armed forces are capable of defeating all challenges.” He said there was no need for any despondency as Pakistan was a “responsible state” of 140 million people with nuclear capabilities. UNI, PTI |
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India against war: Advani New Delhi, December 25 “The government and the people of India do not want war. What they want is an end to terrorism,” he told newspersons after inaugurating the Category-IIIA (improved) instrument landing system at the IGI Airport here. “The December 13 attack on Parliament has made it possible for India, with the support of the world opinion, to force Pakistan to abandon terrorism as an instrument of state policy,” Mr Advani said. Dealing with terrorist outfits was “not much of a problem”, but when a state sponsors terrorism and adopts it as a policy “then difficulties arise”, he said. To a question on Pakistan’s demand for sharing evidence on the involvement of Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, Mr Advani categorically said “we are not going to share evidence with Pakistan after they levelled preposterous allegations that the terrorist strike was carried out by our agencies”. The Home Minister further added that “Nobody wants evidence about Pakistan’s involvement. The terrorist attacks in the past several years have convinced the world that Pakistan continued to sponsor terrorism in India.” Earlier, while launching the Cat-IIIA system, the Home Minister said while internal steps were being taken to check terrorist attacks, “we will take the help of the world opinion to fight this challenge”. Stating that terrorism was being sponsored for long by “our neighbour”, Mr Advani asserted that those who carried out this audacious attack on Parliament “will have to pay for the consequences”. He said the government’s aim was to provide good governance (suraj) to the people and for that its responsibility was to fight the challenges of hunger (bhookh), corruption (bhrashtachar) and fear (bhay). While the problem of hunger was being tackled, he said “what we are facing now is the problem of overproduction. Though I may not claim that we are able to provide nutritious diet to everyone”. 
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