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Musharraf has crossed all limits: Vajpayee

Devidas Gupta and Dharam Shourie in New York

Keeping up his attack on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has charged the Pakistani dictator with having 'crossed all limits' in uttering lies about Jammu and Kashmir.

"Pakistan General [Musharraf] came to the UN General Assembly and spoke all lies. There is a limit to lying but he crossed that also," Vajpayee said amid a round of applause at a meeting organised by Indian American community on Saturday.

Vajpayee was apparently referring to Musharraf's address to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday during when he raked up the communal violence in Gujarat and levelled allegations that India was 'planning to rig' the election in Jammu and Kashmir.

Urging the world community not to be misled by Musharraf's lies, the prime minister said the leaders should not forget the death and destruction wrought by terrorists. Attacking Musharraf on his definition of freedom fighters in the context of the J&K situation, Vajpayee said it was a blatant lie to call terrorists freedom fighters who were mercilessly killing innocent people, including women and children.

"Is it [killings] what the freedom fighters should be doing?" he asked.

Vajpayee made fun of Musharraf's remark that the world does not understand its viewpoint because Hindus in India had so much 'misled' the world that it does not accept his [Musharraf] view point.

"How could that happen?" he asked, implying that truth was on the Indian side.

Vajpayee also asked world leaders to keep up the tempo of the fight against the menace of terrorism till 'it is completely rooted out'.

Without naming Osama bin Laden, Vajpayee said the dreaded terrorists had taken shelter in Pakistan and warned that any slackness in the battle against them would only encourage them to continue their nefarious activities with dangerous consequences for the world.

"I want to tell the world leaders that there should be no complacency in the fight against terrorism and the high decibel of bugle of war sounded against terrorism should not be allowed to come down," he said.

India, he declared, is determined to crush terrorism with its full might. The determination of Indians not to allow terrorism to prevail was very clear when security personnel sacrificed their lives in protecting the Parliament from the terrorist attack on December 13 last, he said.

Referring to September 11 strike in the United States, Vajpayee said nobody thought that such attack could take place. Stating that he was concerned over the disappearance of those who had hatched the conspiracy, Vajpayee asked, "Where have they gone?"

As the audience shouted, "To Pakistan," Vajpayee said, "You know more than me and you have given the right answer."

Complete Coverage: Vajpayee's US Report

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