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November 24, 2001
1825 IST

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Benazir asks Musharraf regime to 'revise' its policy on Kashmir

Former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhutto has asked the Musharraf regime in Pakistan to 'revise' its policy on Kashmir to ensure non-Kashmiri groups did not 'hijack' Kashmir as other groups did in Afghanistan.

There is an 'attempt by the non-Kashmiri groups to hijack Kashmir as they hijacked Afghanistan. Certainly, it is time for Islamabad to revise a policy where such elements are concerned," Bhutto, who is arriving in Delhi on Saturday night on a short visit to India, said.

She maintained that there was a need for India and Pakistan to accept that they have differing views on Kashmir and 'yet want peace in the region. Countries with disputes maintain trade and build relations and we too need to do the same'.

Asked what new Kashmir policy would she recommend to Pakistan, Bhutto, who last visited India at the time of the 1972 Simla Summit, told news portal tehelka.com, "Manage the conflict if the dispute cannot be resolved in the near future."

Observing that New Delhi and Islamabad needed to take a 'quantum jump' to reduce mutual suspicion and mistrust, she said people-to-people contact should be increased by easing travel restrictions and confidence-building measures should be initiated in the nuclear field.

Bhutto, who is coming to India at the invitation of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), is scheduled to address a CII function on November 26 and visit the dargah (shrine) at Ajmer the next day.

Maintaining that Pakistan's Afghan policy was 'in shambles', the former premier said what was being billed as 'strategic depth' has turned out to be 'strategic threat'.

"I think it was a mistake to insist on having a friendly government in Afghanistan. We should be interested in a stable Afghanistan rather than a friendly government in that country," she said.

To a question that madrassas (Islamic schools) were turning into hotbeds of terrorism, Bhutto said, "These institutes must stop producing private armies that undermine Pakistan's security and create the kind of crisis we witnessed in Afghanistan."

She also said continued dictatorship and absence of democracy and democratic institutions were an 'ideal breeding ground for extremist religious parties. Pakistan must revert to democracy to stem the tide of extremism'.

EARLIER REPORT:
Bhutto's visit does have political significance

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