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Bhutto vetoed Kargil-like plan in 1996

Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto has revealed she had vetoed an army proposal for a Kargil-like operation in Jammu and Kashmir in the beginning of 1996 when she was the head of the government.

''Yes. I was invited to a briefing at the general headquarters. In front of about 50 or 60 officers, I was given a briefing with maps and screen slides. At the end of the briefing, I vetoed it,'' Bhutto said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Bhutto, who is currently in London, supported an open border policy with India and stated she was willing to visit Kashmir herself as part of such a process.

''We think the time has come to have open borders, open exchanges, to free our people. Maybe if we free our people, something better can be achieved than all the governments of the past,'' she said.

She said the assemblies of Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir could meet to monitor the Line of Control and to prevent militancy once an open border policy was adopted.

Bhutto said, ''Ultimately they could decide whether they want to be two assemblies with a supra-assembly or whether they want to come together in one assembly. But first, if we can put aside our prejudices, begin to open up, then we will look at things differently...ultimately everything is how you see it.''

UNI

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