Pakistan started war with India in 1965: Durrani

* Nothing achieved from Indo-Pak wars

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: Former national security adviser Mahmood Ali Durrani has said that the Indian Army crossed the international border to launch full-fledged war against Pakistan in 1965 because “low-level skirmishes were started from this side”.

“We started the intrusions on the borders, and I think we should think about the Indian response at that time,” said Durrani while talking to Daily Times Editor-in-Chief Najam Sethi on his Dunya News programme on Sunday. He said the high-level military command was not involved in “a strategy to disturb India”, but politicians knew about what was happening along the border. He said then foreign affairs minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto also had no idea that India would cross the international border.

Durrani said he had participated in two wars, and “I now think Pakistan did not achieve anything from these wars”.

“We should extend [a hand of] friendship towards India, and start peace talks to settle disputes,” he said.

Durrani said former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice had arranged negotiations between Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto. He said he was “very sad” over Benazir’s assassination in Rawalpindi.

Durrani said he accepted President Asif Ali Zardari’s invitation to join his government as the national security adviser after taking Musharraf into confidence. He said he had floated an idea in India that the neighbours should soften their visa regimes, but the Indians had some “security-related reservations”.

Durrani, also a former ambassador to the US, said there had only been speculation about Israeli and Indian involvement in Ziaul Haq’s plane crash. He also rejected the statement by former president Ghulam Ishaq Khan that the presidential plane was blown up in the air. He said Zia’s plane was destroyed while landing.

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