LAHORE: Rajiv Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto were ready to resolve the Kashmirissue amicably but the Indian leader was assassinated during the electioncampaign, Pakistan’s former president Asif Ali Zardari has claimed.
Zardari also revealed that former dictator Gen (retd.) Pervez Musharraf hadcome up with a plan on Kashmir issue but other generals could not agree toit.
“BB (Benazir Bhutto) sahiba had spoken to Rajiv Gandhi in 1990 who agreedto resolve the Kashmir issue amicably. Rajiv told Benazir that during thelast 10 years no one including Gen Zia from Pakistan spoke with us on thisissue,” Zardari said at a Kashmir rally here last evening.
“He (Rajiv) admitted that Kashmir was an important issue and should beresolved. Rajiv said he would take up this issue with Pakistan after comingto power but he was assassinated (in 1991),” the former president added.
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated while campaigning for the Congress partycandidate in Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991.
The Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman further said that no othergovernment except PPP took up this issue with India.
After Benazir, it was PPP’s previous government (2008-13) that had taken upthe Kashmir issue with the then Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh.
Zardari said Musharraf’s (India friendly) plan on the Kashmir issue wasrejected.
“I have a copy of that secret plan of Musharraf on Kashmir.
He said ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif cannot talk on the Kashmir issueeven in his Muzafarabad (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) rally as he is a friendof Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“A friend of Modi cannot talk on Kashmir. Sharif was rightly ousted fromthe prime minister house for betraying Kashmiris,” he said. – Agencies