Vajpayee debunks Mush claim on Agra failure

New Delhi, Sep 26: Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today debunked Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's claim that the two leaders were ''insulted'' at the Agra Summit and instead, blamed the military leader for the failure of the talks by not agreeing to describe J and K violence as terrorism.

''No one insulted the General and certainly no one insulted me at Agra. During our talks he took a stand that that the violence that was taking place in Jammu and Kashmir could not be described as 'terrorism.' He continued to claim that the bloodshed in the State was nothing but the people's battle for freedom. It was this stand of General Musharraf that India just could not accept. And this was responsible for the failure of the Agra Summit,'' Mr Vajpayee said while expressing ''surprise''at the claim made by the Pakistan President in his recently-released book 'In the Line of Fire.' President Musharraf has said in the book that ''someone above'' both (Vajpayee and Musharraf) had scuttled the talks and ''insulted'' both of them.

In a statement the veteran BJP leader said that although he was still to see the book, he had seen press reports about it. He said the General's reported comments on the Agra failure had ''surprised'' him.

UNI

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