Posted October 14, 1999
Anti-India sentiment in army led to coup: Report
JPR:
Saw this report in India Today.
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Islamabad, October 14: A strong anti-India sentiment among the top brass of the Pakistani army, specially in the wake of Kargil crisis, reportedly aggravated the differences between Premier Nawaz Sharif and the army which ultimately led to the coup against Sharif on Tuesday, the English daily The News reported.
Though the roots of Sharif's differences with General Pervez Musharraf goes back to October 1998 when the previous army chief General Jehangir Karamat was removed in a controversial manner, the situation really aggravated in the wake of Kargil crisis and specially due to Sharif's decision to pull back from the Kargil heights, it said on Wednesday.
The report, quoting senior military officials, said the army top brass had tough time in explaining the pull back to the rank and file of the army in recent times. ?In the aftermath of the Kargil crisis, we went through almost a revolt situation in the army as the rank and file thought that the government had betrayed them,? a ranking military official was quoted as saying.
The newspaper also quoted military officials as saying that the Corp Commanders were furious that instead of negotiating a mutually agreed settlement of the Kargil crisis, Sharif rushed to Washington and settled for a ?humiliating? withdrawal of troops as according to their opinion, the Pakistani Army was controlling strategic heights in Kargil and Sharif should have used that position as bargaining chip with the Indians.
Incidentally, the differences between Sharif and General Musharraf had come out in open only last month when former foreign secretary Niaz Naik, who was acting as Sharif's special emissary to pursue the so-called back-channel diplomacy with India, revealed that India and Pakistan were close to clinching a deal on Kashmir but the Kargil operation, about which Sharif had little knowledge, sabotaged the process.
Another irritant between civilian and military leadership, according to the newspaper is the shooting down of a Pakistan navy aircraft by the Indian Air Force on August 10 in which 16 Pakistan naval personnel were killed.
A third issue involving India which further aggravated the tension between Sharif and the army was the issue of Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) as the army was opposed to the unilateral signing of the treaty by Pakistan and Sharif had been told by it that Islamabad should not sign the CTBT before New Delhi does, it added. |
