Former foreign minister of Pakistan Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri has blamed former home minister Lal Krishna Advani for failed talks between India and Pakistan held in Agra in 2001.
According to Kasuri, Pakistan had provided India with addresses of militant camps operating in Pakistani side of Kashmir as part of its deal to bring peace to the Valley. But Advani’s demand to hand over Dawood Ibrahim, spoiled the peace talks.
“It was Advani’s demand that Pakistan hand over fugitive Dawood Ibrahim to India that destroyed the Agra peace talks,” Mumbai Mirror quoted Kasuri.
Kasuri, who worked as Pakistan’s foreign minister during General Pervez Musharraf’s regime from 2002-2007, said how can you hand over somebody (Dawood) who the Pakistani authorities claim is not in the country.
He further stated that Pakistani courts can throw out a prime minister, but not a terrorist. “Former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was thrown out by the courts. But the killer of then Punjab governor Salman Taseer could not be tried for his crime,” he said.
Kasuri said he is hopeful about peace between India and Pakistan and called for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take forward Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s work towards that end.
“My hope is that Modi realises that the course adopted by Vajpayee was the best course,” Kasuri said at the launch of his book — ‘Neither a Hawk nor a Dove: An Insider’s Account of Pakistan’s Foreign Policy’
Significantly, the book reveals an insider’s account of how India and Pakistan nearly clinched a deal on Kashmir through back channel dialogues during former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan president Parvaiz Musharraf’s time.
It may be recalled that the talks and peace process collapsed and no signatures were attained for the Agra treaty.
According to Indian scholar, Gaurav Kampani, there were three major reasons for the Indian government’s reluctance in accepting Pakistan’s assurances at face value.
First, the Vajpayee government did not trust then president Parvaiz Musharraf and the establishment that he represented in Delhi. India was not satisfied with Pakistan’s pledge to halt cross-border infiltrations; thirdly the Indian government had plans for holding regional elections in Indian Administered Kashmir in October 2002.