'Pak is told to target the Muslim bomb against India'

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi believes that the United States and Israel are creating sharp differences between India and Pakistan, so that the latter could not target its 'Muslim bomb' against the West.

"The Pakistanis are told that their enemy is the Hindu, not the Jew or Christian, and therefore their bomb should be directed towards them, the Pakistanis' immediate enemy, and not anyone else," he wrote in The Washington Times.

Similarly, the Indians are led to believe their real enemy is Pakistan and that the Pakistani bomb was directed toward them rather than the Israelis or Americans, Gadhafi said in an opinion piece published last week.

"This policy aims to preoccupy Pakistan with India and India with Pakistan. Perhaps this is why America has not been willing to contribute to solving the Kashmiri problem, whereas the Israelis will try to always keep it flammable," he said.

Gadhafi pointed out that if Islamic extremists affiliated to al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden took over the government in Pakistan, "the key to the nuclear bomb would be in their hands. This has created the Pakistani quagmire for the Americans and Israelis."

To address this potentially dangerous situation, they have attempted to further drive a wedge of hostility between Pakistan and neighbouring India," Gadhafi said. "Truly, the Pakistani nuclear bomb is a Muslim bomb," he wrote in his piece.

"On the other hand, if political parties such as the Pakistan People's Party or even the army ruled, things would be relatively safe because they presumably constitute responsible institutions. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that they can form sustainable governments," he said.

Observing that there can be no Pakistan without Islam, as Islam was the basis for its separation from India, he said, "Islam for the Pakistanis is not a question of faith only but also a question of identity."

Pakistan, he argued, is witnessing dramatic changes because of its complex demographic structure. Socially, it is composed of various ethnicities and fierce tribes -- bordering Afghanistan -- that have no loyalty to either Pakistan or to Afghanistan, Gadhafi observed

"Pakistan faces challenges even within its region. It is threatened by the Shiaite Muslim state of Iran and the Hindu India. This is the reason behind the formation of violent Muslim groups affiliated with the fierce tribes in Afghanistan as well as with the al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden," he said.