NEW DELHI: Going out of his way to reach out to his neighbouring country, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said India was justified in believing that its then prime minister A B Vajpayee had been stabbed in the back by Pakistan in 1999 with the Kargil misadventure.
“Vajpayee once told me that he had been stabbed in the back with the Kargil misadventure because it came soon after the Lahore Declaration. I told him I would have said the same thing if I were in his place,” said Sharif at a rally in Muzaffarabad. “But who do I complain to about it now. People of India and Pakistan are alike, except for the border in between. We pray to the same God. We both cherish Aloo Gosht.” This is not the first time Sharif blamed Musharraf for Kargil. The recent comments come at a time when both countries find themselves tied to start the comprehensive bilateral dialogue, which they had announced in December, last year. A new name for the composite dialogue process launched in 1998, it had been stopped after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
While government sources said Sharif's admission wasn't communicated to them officially, an official said it was a positive development if true. Sharif's comments are important in the context of the Pathankot attack. The attack, just before the scheduled meet between the foreign secretaries in January seemed to envelop the government with a sense of deja vu, coming as it did weeks after Modi's Lahore initiative which saw him attending Sharif's daughter's wedding.
