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Not our view, says Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: An embarrassed Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that statements by a Parliamentarian in the National Assembly preaching jihad in Kashmir and against the United States were “individual views” and did not represent Pakistan Government policy.

The U.S. Embassy described the statements, which included an allegation that the U.S. was behind the killings of Chinese nationals in Pakistan, as “outrageous” and “irresponsible.”

Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Major (retd.) Syed Tanveer Hussain made the statements on Tuesday.

The Parliamentarian also urged Pakistan to give full support to jihad in Kashmir, renounce its “love affair” with the U.S. and accept the Taliban as the main force in Afghanistan. He said the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was targeting Chinese nationals in Pakistan with the aim of spoiling relations between Islamabad and Beijing.

According to newspaper reports, Major Hussain also said India could not be expected to make any concessions on Kashmir to Pakistan on the dialogue table, but ‘mujahideen’ would be able to “liberate Kashmir within six months.” He also advocated jihad to counter the “Pressler-type” legislation recently enacted in the U.S. that places conditionalities on aid to Pakistan. “Be it the mountains of Waziristan, Kashmir or the land of the Punjab, there should be only one slogan: Al Jihad, Al Jihad,” he had said.

His remarks reportedly left most of the House stunned but members of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, the six-party right-wing religious coalition, applauded the speech.

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