LONDON, JULY 20: Former top Pakistan army brass including Air Marshal Nur Khan have described Kargil intrusion as a `military disaster' saying that the issue, which had turned into international fiasco, had once again proved there could be no military solution to the Kashmir issue.`We should have known that India will not be bogged down in Kargil and could extend the war to other fronts. We should have also known that international community would not support such covert operations', Nur Khan was quoted by the ethnic Pakistani paper The News International here as saying.`Despite an isolated tactical military gain, Pakistan has lost on strategic grounds', the former top Pakistan army brass were quoted as saying at a `Post Kargil scenario' seminar organised by the paper in Islamabad.Nur Khan said, `The buck stops at prime minister Nawaz Sharif and chief of the army staff Gen Parvez Musharraf, who are responsible for the whole debacle and must accept the responsibility'.Former Pakistan vicechief of army staff Lt Gen (retd) Matinuddin said that Kargil operations was a `complete fiasco' and a failure. `Even the strategic planning was missing as it failed to anticipate enemy's reaction'.The general also added `as in 1965 and 1971 and now in Kargil, Pakistan government has been committing the same mistakes'.A former chief of the Pakistan army Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which according to reports masterminded the coup de grace of occupation of over 25 Indian military posts, Lt Gen Asad Durrani described the Kargil intrusion as `tactically a brilliant operation'.However, the former ISI chief said, `We had not set our strategic priorities and failed in diplomatic and political preparations to back it up'.He said, `a military operation alone was not sufficient, it involved other initiatives also', an apparent blatant admission that Kargil intrusion was a Pakistani army operation.Air Marshal Nur Khan blamed Nawaz Sharif for approving what he called misconceived operationand army chief Gen Musharraf for planning such a misguided adventure.The paper said that leaders of major opposition groups also participated in the `Kargil forum', with Aitzaz Ahasan, leader of the opposition in senate asked if the mujahideen after coming down from the heights, be allowed to carry weapons inside the heartland of Pakistan.`What effect would this have on our society, would our army continue to give them military training? Yes. It appears we have averted a major full scale war with India. But we should be ready for a civil war inside Pakistan', Ahasan warned.`We have to be on high moral grounds before initiating hostile engagements. You took Kargil heights, but you let India take moral heights,' Aitzaz Ahsan said adding that Washington accord was flawed as `Our adversary (India) was not signatory to it'.The leader of the opposition in the senate also ridiculed the theory that possession of nuclear weapons was a deterance.. These weapons have not been used since 1945. The Americans,when they were brought down by Vietnamese could not use it neither did the Soviet Union in Afghanistan'.Farhatullah Babar, spokesman of the leader of the opposition, told the forum that policy of Benazir Bhutto was more positive that of putting in cold storage issue like Kashmir and first going in for less intractable issue with India.Babar said before India and Pakistan moved towards hard decision on Kashmir issue, the two nations should first work towards more opening up of Indo-Pak border including free trade, reduction of tariffs and quotas.
