After 26/11, Zardari told US Pakistan will retaliate if India attacks

WASHINGTON - In the wake of 26/11 terror attacks, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari told the US that Islamabad would retaliate if India attacked, but assured that it would not permit non-state actors to dictate state policy, leaked US diplomatic cables reveal.

Asserting that many in the West did not understand the importance of Kashmir in Pakistani public opinion, Zardari told the then US ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson that there was no way that he could let India attack Pakistan, according to the secret cable released by WikiLeaks.

“Zardari emphasised he had no problem making decisions, recalling that we had asked him to refuse the release of detainees in the context of ‘peace deals’ when the Army and ISI were pressing to do so,” he told Patterson when she called on him on Jan 2, 2009 to discuss the follow-up to the Mumbai investigation.

“But he said there was no way that he could let India attack Pakistan: many in the West did not understand the importance of Kashmir in Pakistani public opinion,” says the leaked US cable dated Jan 5, 2009 and signed off by Patterson.

Zardari confirmed again at the end of the conversation that Pakistan would not allow non-state actors to dictate state policy, but that the GOP (Government of Pakistan) would respond if the Indians attacked.

“Zardari said he had been briefed by Lt General Shuja Pasha (the ISI chief) on his meeting with DCIA (Director of the Central Intelligence Agency), and he had approved the release of ‘tearline’ information to the Indians, the cable from the US embassy in Islamabad said.

He also wanted to emphasise that he and Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani were fully committed to better relations with India.

“He (Zardari) reminded the ambassador that it had only taken a ‘phone call’ from the US to ensure that Pakistan did not oppose the US/India civil nuclear deal at the Nuclear Suppliers Group,” it said.

He also recommended a report done in India which indicated that Indian Muslims were treated poorly and were among the least prosperous members of society,” the cable said.

“He said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was trying to whip up anti-Muslim sentiment. Moreover, there were plenty of extremist groups in India that could have assisted Lashkar-e-Taiba,” it said.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)