Ex-ISI chief warns of civil war in Pakistan.(Now that there is a brilliant idea)
Islamabad, July 4 (Agencies)
A FORMER chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), in a hard-hitting comment, has warned the Nawaz Sharif Government of a “civil war” if it forced the Mujahideen to withdraw from Kargil-Drass sector under international pressure.
If the Mujahideen (Islamic warriors)(mohan:Yeah right!) were forced to withdraw from Kargil-Drass sector, “they would head straight to Islamabad instead of Srinagar and it would lead to a civil war in the country,” Urdu daily Din here quoted former director general of ISI Gen (Retd) Hamid Gul as saying.
Gul expressed apprehensions that the Sharif Government was going to make some compromise on the Kargil issue under American pressure. The former ISI Chief said Musharraf should resign from his post if he is forced to withdraw the mujahideen from the Indian side of the LoC, saying, “I am sure the nation will not forgive those who will back-stab the mujahideen.”
INTRUSION BEGAN LAST NOV: Meanwhile, according to a report in the Time magazine, Pakistani military units experienced in mountain warfare began occupying high ridges on the Indian side of the Line of Control as far back as November last year. The latest issue of the magazine which will hit the stands tomorrow reveals that in November the first batch of Pakistani troops from the Northern Light Infantry regiment and Khyber Rifles — military units experienced in mountain warfare — crept over the 3,500-metre high passes along the LoC to occupy the high ridges held in the summer by the Indian Army.
It said though Islamabad insists that the soldiers on the Indian ridges are mujahideen, it was an alibi Pakistan used for its military advance. The intruding Pakistani soldiers had discarded their uniforms for traditional ‘shalwar kameez', grew beards and wore traditional white religious skull caps. It quoted a Pakistani army officer as saying that “none of us wants war with India....It is very damaging for Pakistan economically, and we feel it will be difficult to sustain”.
According to the magazine, a phone-booth attendant Yawar Shah in Skardu in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir said Pakistani armymen weep when they call home to bid good-bye to their families as not many of them expect to come back from the mountains alive. A Pakistani soldier who spent 77 days on Indian territory fighting at elevations up to 5,400 metres was quoted by the magazine as having said he was ordered to cross the LoC in February this year. “My commanding officer would not allow me to take my AK-47 rifle. I was against going to an Indian hill without a weapon, but I saw that everybody who was being sent across the LoC was going there empty-handed. We were told it was for the sake of secrecy,” he said. The soldier said the skirmishes with the Indians started in May. He said that Pakistanis have suffered a lot of casualties, much more than what officials in Pakistan were willing to admit.
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