Our stand vindicated: BJP

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 13. The Bharatiya Janata Party today strangely rose to defend the ousted Pakistan premier, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, saying that his statement on his Government's role in Kargil had ``vindicated our stand'' that the operation was conducted initially by the Pakistan military establishment without the knowledge of Mr. Sharif's Government.

``Mr. Sharif has now fully corroborated the stand taken at the time of the Kargil conflict by the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of External Affairs that it was the Pakistan military that was initially involved and only subsequently the political regime backed the Kargil misadventure,'' the BJP general secretary and spokesman, Mr. Venkaiah Naidu, said here today.

He was referring to the reported statement of Mr. Sharif that he came to know of the Kargil operation only in May 1999 when it had actually started in January. Mr. Sharif had gone on to say he had evidence to support this and that he would have stopped the February Lahore visit by the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had he known then of the Army's action.

The BJP said Mr. Sharif's statement disowning knowledge of the Kargil operation spoke volumes of the state of the Pakistan nation.

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Section  : National
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