Kashmir is ours: Pak told US in 2002

Washington, Sep 14: As Kashmir burns, newly released declassified documents have revealed Pakistan's unwillingness to take steps to stop infiltration as it believed that "Kashmir should have been ours".

The classified documents released on Monday, Sep 13, give details of the developments that took place in 2002, when US asked Pakistan to end infiltration across the Line of Control in Jammu Kashmir.

Responding to this advise, Pakistan had asked US not to "push it too far", asserting that "Kashmir should have been ours".

This was part of communication between Richard Haass, the then Director of Policy Planning Staff at the US State Department, and an unnamed Pakistani military official during a meeting that took place on Oct 31, 2002.

"On Kashmir, Haass stressed the importance of ending infiltration, but the Pak official warned the US not to push Pakistan too far on Kashmir," the documents read.

While Hass argued that putting an end to infiltration and resolving the Kashmir crisis would "help Pakistan's cause with the US and India", the Pak official maintained that Pak"s Kashmir position was "based on justice" despite admitting that the issue was "bedevilling our relations".

"Kashmir should have been ours. The Pakistani people would not agree to make the LOC (Line of Control) the international border. Kashmir had cost Musharraf a lot, as had his decision to help the CT coalition.

"Musharraf's detractors had hit him on both Kashmir and Afghanistan. India had tried to exploit the political atmosphere after 9/11," the Pak official is quoted as saying.

OneIndia News