Islamabad, March 6
In the first statement from the Pakistani establishment, a former ISI chief, Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi (retd), has blamed the banned militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad for the terrorist attack on Indian Parliament House in 2001 and the recent suicide attacks on President Pervez Musharraf, as well as for deaths of “thousands” of Kashmiris.
“We must not be afraid of admitting that Jaish was involved in the deaths of thousands of innocent Kashmiris, bombing the Indian Parliament, (journalist) Daniel Pearl’s murder and attempts on President Musharraf’s life,” General Qazi said in a debate in the Senate on General Musharraf’s address to the joint sitting of Parliament.
India has blamed both Jaish and another Pakistan-based militant outfit, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, for the attack on Parliament. The two organisations were subsequently banned by General Musharraf.
General Qazi, who served as a senior minister in General
Musharraf’s military government, said both Jaish and Lashkar-e-Taiba had harmed the “Kashmir struggle” the most.
The ruling PML (Q) member blamed sectarian outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi for the attacks on minority Shias in Pakistan.
Both Jaish and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi were products of a campaign of hatred, he said, adding that “they are producing zombies to kill their Muslim brothers,” according to the ‘Daily Times’.
