News APP

NewsApp (Free)

Read news as it happens
Download NewsApp

Available on  gplay

Rediff.com  » News » 'We've had 60 years of hate relationship with India'

'We've had 60 years of hate relationship with India'

Source: PTI
May 19, 2009 02:53 IST
Get Rediff News in your Inbox:
Pakistan cannot be swayed by the world community's call to shift troops from Indo-Pak border as it has had a relationship of "hate" with India for the past 60 years, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said on Monday.

"For 60 years, we have had a relationship of hate with India and we have concerns. We can't disassociate (from that) due to the world community," Kaira told mediapersons in Islamabad.

Kaira was responding to a question on the international community's call for Pakistan to move troops from the Indian frontier so that they could focus on the campaign against the Taliban.

Kaira said "adequate troops" have been deployed for the campaign against militants in Swat and nearby areas, and more forces could be sent to the region if army commanders projected a need for them.

He said six or seven of the Pakistan army's nine corps are stationed along the Indian frontier. These troops are not deployed on the border though the corps and cantonments are located near the frontier, he added.

Pakistan alone had the right to decide "when, where and how many troops" should be deployed, he said. Decisions about troop deployments would be made by army commanders on the ground and not by the political leadership, Kaira added.

Get Rediff News in your Inbox:
Source: PTI© Copyright 2024 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.