Kashmir should have been ours: Pak to US

NEW DELHI: US’ newly declassified documents detailing exchanges between Washington and Islamabad have revealed Pakistan’s extra-territorial intentions. Pakistan, according to the documents, had told the US that it should not “push Islamabad too far” on infiltration, with an assertion that “Kashmir should have been ours”.

This communication forms part of a meeting Richard Hass, the then director of policy planning staff at the state department, had with an unnamed Pakistani military official on October 31, 2002, to discuss US-Pak co-operation a year after the deadly 9/11 attacks in the US. “On Kashmir, Hass stressed the importance of ending infiltration, but the Pak official warned the US not to push Pakistan too far on Kashmir,” classified documents said.

It be recalled that the state department, then headed by Colin Powell, pitched strongly for Pakistan despite doubts about its intentions. Mr Powell had bought into Pakistan’s claims that it was its best ally in the war against terror.

According to the document, Mr Hass told the top official that he was pleased about the (Indian) announcement of troop pullback from the border as de-escalation would free resources to be devoted to sealing the Afghan border and counter-terrorism. “It appeared that India wanted to renew contacts but continued infiltration was a barrier to progress...The US believed that infiltration was continuing. Stopping it would help Pakistan’s cause with the US and India. Infiltration hurts Pakistan’s friends efforts to help it,” Mr Hass said, according to the documents.

The Pakistani official agreed that Kashmir was the issue “bedevilling our relations”. But Pakistan’s Kashmir position was “based on justice”, he argued. “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 said.

At the same meeting, Pakistan had pleaded with the US to provide it with an aerial surveillance capability.