Musharaff acknowledges involvement of Pak troops in Kargil

ISLAMABAD: In the first official acknowledgement of involvement of Pakistan's regular troops in the Kargil conflict, President Pervez Musharraf has described it as "a landmark in the history of the Pakistani army".

"Considered purely on military terms, the Kargil operations were a landmark in the history of the Pakistani army", he writes in his book 'In the Line of Fire' scheduled to be released in New York on Monday.

For long Pakistan has maintained that the 1999 conflict in Kargil involved "freedom fighters", but the General says that five units of his army has supported the "freedom fighter groups" to compel the Indians to employ more than four divisions.

He insists that Kargil was a tactical victory for his men trying to "undo Indian adventurism", according to extracts of the book carried by 'The Nation' newspaper which in turn quoted BBC.

The President rubbishes speculation that Pakistan was preparing for a nuclear attack on India at the time of the conflict. "I can say with authority that in 1999 our nuclear capability was not yet operational.....Any talk of preparing for nuclear strikes is preposterous", he says.

Musharraf refuted then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's claim that the general had not taken him into confidence about the Kargil operations.

The army, Musharraf writes, briefed Sharif in Skardu on January 29, 1999 and in Kel on February 5, 1999. "During these briefings, our defensive manoeuvres were explained as a response to all that was happening on the Indian side."

Musharraf says Sharif, who was ousted by the general in a coup in October 1999, was also briefed on March 12, 1999 at the Directorate General of Inter-Services Intelligence.

The general says Sharif made the "cardinal mistake of underestimating him".

"He had probably thought that being the son of migrant parents, I would feel more insecure and vulnerable. He couldn't have been more wrong," Musharraf writes.

Sharif, now living in exile, has consistently maintained that Musharraf kept him in the dark about the Kargil operations, and he learnt of them from then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.