New York: Keeping up his attack on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, Prime
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has charged him with having "crossed all limits" in
uttering lies about Jammu and Kashmir.
"Pakistan General (Musharraf) came to the UN General Assembly and spoke all lies.
There is a limit to lying but he crossed that also," Vajpayee said amid a round of
applause at a meeting organised by Indian-American community in New York.
Vajpayee was apparently referring to Musharraf's address to the UN General Assembly
on September 11 during when he raked up the communal violence in Gujarat and
levelled allegations that India was "planning to rig" elections in J and K and that
it was trying to delegitimise the Kashmiri freedom struggle by misusing the
rationale of the war against terrorism.
Urging the world community not to be misled by Musharraf's lies, the Prime Minister
said the leaders should not forget the death and destruction wrought by
terrorists.
Attacking Musharraf on his definition of freedom fighters in the context of the J
and K situation, Vajpayee said it was a blatant lie to call terrorists freedom
fighters who were mercilessly killing innocent people including women and children.
"Is it killings what the freedom fighters should be doing," he asked.
Vajpayee made fun of Musharraf's remark that the world does not understand
its view point because Hindus in India had so much "misled" the world that
it does not accept his (Musharraf) view point.
How could that happen, he asked implying that truth was on the Indian side.
Vajpayee also asked world leaders to keep up the tempo of the fight against
the menace of terrorism till "it is completely rooted out".
Without naming Osama bin Laden, Vajpayee said the dreaded terrorists had
taken shelter in Pakistan and warned that any slackness in the battle
against them would only encourage them to continue their nefarious
activities with dangerous consequences for the world.
"I want to tell the world leaders that there should be no complacency in the
fight against terrorism and the high decibel of bugle of war sounded against
terrorism should not be allowed to come down," he said.
The forefathers of those who claimed to be freedom fighters never took part
in the country's Independence movement, Vajpayee said.
India, he declared, is determined to crush terrorism with its full might.
The determination of Indians not to allow terrorism to prevail was very
clear when security personnel sacrificed their lives in protecting the
Parliament from the terrorists' attack on December 13 last, he said.
Referring to September 11 strike in the United States, Vajpayee said nobody
thought that such attack could take place.
Stating that he was concerned over the disappearance of those who had
hatched the conspiracy, Vajpayee asked, "Where have they gone?"
As the audience shouted that they went to Pakistan, Vajpayee said, "You know
more than me and you have given the right answer."
He said he was told in Almaty during his recent visit by a delegate that
they had taken shelter in the neighbouring country (Pakistan).
Mentioning about country's progress, he said that several delegates at the
United Nations wanted to know from him as to how India had attained
self-sufficiency in food.
"Today we do not import foodgrain from other countries. We are instead
exporting foodgrain to the world," he said.
PTI
