Washington, Oct. 24: Growing Islamic extremism among the youth in India is a matter of concern and New Delhi needs to look into that, says the former Pakistan president, Mr Pervez Musharraf.
The former military ruler also said that Pakistan faced threats from Al Qaeda who exist in small numbers in the country’s western tribal areas, the Pakistani Taliban who are getting bolder, and growing numbers of ex-mujahideen travelling to Jammu and Kashmir to fight the Indian Army.
Expressing concern about what he said was increasing Islamic extremism among the young in India, he said: “The Indian government needs to look into that.” He did not elaborate.
Speaking at Asia Society’s Texas Centre, Mr Musharraf referred to three blunders that contributed to the terror threat emanating from Afghanistan and western Pakistan. He blamed the US and the West for arming and encouraging the mujahideen to wage war in Afghanistan against the Soviets, a move that introduced religious militancy into that
country, and then abandoning the war-ravaged country once Soviet troops got out. So the first blunder, in 1989, was abandoning the place without any rehabilitation or resettlement, (which) gave rise to al Qaeda and then the Taliban.
Defending his decision to recognise the Taliban government, he said he aimed to change them from within. Western failure to do that constituted the second blunder. He stressed that joining the post-September 11 coalition was in Pakistan’s interest.