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This is an archive article published on July 9, 1999

J N Dixit warns of Pak-China nexus

CHENNAI, JULY 8: The Kargil incursion by Pakistan was not a short-term adventure, but part of a long-term strategy to destabilise India, ...

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CHENNAI, JULY 8: The Kargil incursion by Pakistan was not a short-term adventure, but part of a long-term strategy to destabilise India, former foreign secretary J N Dixit said today.

Speaking on the Kargil issue at a public meeting organised by the city-based public opinion forum Vigil8217;, he warned of a China-Pak collusion to destabilise India.

He said that removing intruders from Kargil was only an interim solution. What was required was a long-term policy like stabilising the Line of Control LOC and maintaining an offensively defensive posture on the Kargil heights as was being done in Siachen.

Warning of UN action against India if the conflict expanded or prolonged beyond September when the UN General Assembly was slated to meet, he said not take the world reactions at face value, he warned.

Stating that Pakistan was not desirous of a working practical relationship with India, he quoted statements made by Pakistan foreign ministers over the years to indicate that the Pakistanis had always beensceptical of developing cordial relations with India.

He said that Pakistan8217;s antipathy could be traced to the inferiority complex it suffers over its identity and to its bitterness in not having secured much of the lands it coveted during the Partition. Moreover, Pakistan looked at breaking India as a way of avenging its honour for having been forced to accede Bangladesh.

Going into the geo-statistical aspects of the Kargil adventure, he said that Kargil had been a targeted area in the minds of the Pakistanis since 1988. However, India8217;s focus was on the valley. He said that while reports suggested that operational plans had been drawn up in September last, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif himself had declared in November last in Muzzafarabad that Kargil was part of Pakistan.

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Rajya Sabha MP Arun Shourie said that the Kargil adventure must awaken Indians to the fact that they needed to be more security-conscious.

 

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