Musharraf Blasts "Ungrateful" West

"You will be brought down to your knees if Pakistan doesn't co-operate with you," said Musharraf. (Reuters)

In an interview with BBC radio, Musharraf was asked for his response to the view that Pakistan was not a good ally in the fight against global extremism because of the links between terrorism and his country.

"You will be brought down to your knees if Pakistan doesn't co-operate with you. That is all that I would like to say. Pakistan is the main ally. If we were not with you, you would not manage anything. Let that be clear," he said.

"And if the ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) is not with you, you will fail. Let that be very clear also. Remember my words: if the ISI is not with you and Pakistan is not with you will lose in Afghanistan."

Musharraf recorded the interview after talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London on Thursday, September 28.

The meeting came following a leaked British defense ministry think-tank report that claimed the ISI was indirectly supporting extremism in Afghanistan, Iraq and Britain by backing the MNA coalition of Pakistani religious parties, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, again strongly denied the claims, which were written by a senior military official linked to Britain's foreign intelligence service, MI6, after a fact-finding mission there in June.

The president accepted Blair's assurances that the document was not a reflection of the British government position.

Misunderstanding

The Pakistani leader called for more understanding of his country's predicament as it struggled with the continuing fall-out from the Cold War played out by proxy in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s.

"From 1979 to 1989 we fought the Soviet Union for you. We won the Cold War for you," he said, explaining that the Pakistan army and ISI played a part in training the tens of thousands of fighters to resist the Soviets.

But after the Soviet withdrawal, the West left Pakistan "high and dry", he said, leading to the creation of the radicalized Taliban and Al-Qaeda from the remnants of the mujahideen resistance.

"The world must understand our problem. It is for you that we did it and we are suffering," Musharraf told the British broadcaster.

"Our national fabric has been torn. Now, without understanding, everyone blames us for what is happening in Pakistan. It is something that is happening, understand it and help us."

Musharraf pointed to ISI and Pakistan army successes in the US-led "war on terror", in particular the capture of hundreds of suspected Al-Qaeda militants.

They included the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he said, while they played a key role in foiling an alleged terror plot to blow up US-bound passenger jets on August 10 this year.

Musharraf, in an interview with CBS "60 Minutes" last week, dropped a bombshell, saying that the United States blackmailed Pakistan by threatening to bomb it "back to the Stone Age" after the September 11, 2001 attacks unless it supported the war on terror.

In a collection of memoirs entitled "In the Line of Fire," Musharraf further said that US intelligence has paid Pakistan millions of dollars for handing over Al-Qaeda suspects it has captured.

"We have captured 689 and handed over 369 to the United States. We have earned bounties totalling millions of dollars," Musharraf says in his book, which was released on Monday.

"Those who habitually accuse us of 'not doing enough' in the war on terror should simply ask the CIA how much prize money it has paid to the government of Pakistan," he says, without specifying where the money came from.

Mumbai Blasts

Soon after the interview was broadcast Saturday, Indian police blamed the ISI and the outlawed pro-Pakistan militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the July 11 bomb attacks in Mumbai that killed 186 people and injured more than 800.

But Pakistan on Saturday rejected the claim.

"This is a totally baseless and fabricated allegation and we reject it," Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told AFP.

The foreign ministry in Islamabad also condemned the allegation as "irresponsible and repetition of baseless allegations."

Indian police official A.N. Roy told reporters in Mumbai that the attacks were planned by Pakistan's ISI and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

"This whole business was planned by the ISI in Pakistan and the LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba), and local operatives here helped them," Roy, who is police commissioner of Mumbai, told a news conference.

Sherpao said it was unfortunate the allegation was made after the leadership of the two countries met in Havana in Cuba early this month where they agreed to resume peace talks and also set up a joint mechanism to fight terrorism.

"Such unfounded allegations maligning Pakistan are not going to help the peace process," Sherpao said.

India abruptly halted a two-year-old peace process between the nuclear-armed neighbors soon after the Mumbai blast which Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at the time received support from elements across the border, in an apparent reference to Pakistan.

The foreign office said Pakistan had offered to help India in the investigation into the Mumbai train blasts if it provided evidence and solid information of Pakistani involvement.

"We have received absolutely nothing in terms of evidence, information or leads," the ministry said in a statement.

"This statement, like those made immediately after the Mumbai bomb blasts, contains unsubstantiated allegations, which the Indian officials and media keep making for propaganda purposes," it said.

The foreign office charged it was "quite possible that this is an attempt to divert attention from indigenous elements that may be responsible for terrorist acts in Mumbai and Malegaon in Maharashtra," it said.

Around 31 Muslims were killed in Malegaon town in Western India in a series of blasts outside a mosque last month.

Both India and Pakistan engaged in three deadly wars over the disputed Himalayan region of Jammu and Kashmir.

From April 1948 to 1957, the UN passed a series of resolutions, affirming the right of self-determination of the people of Kashmir in accordance with a referendum to be held under international auspices.

But India considers all of Kashmir to be an integral part of its soil, and often makes statements about acquiring the Pakistani half, known in Pakistan as ‘Azad’ (free Kashmir).