Islamabad: Kashmir is the heart of India-Pakistan relations and jehadis will turn towards Kashmir after the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan this year, a former Pakistani army chief has said.
“Kashmir is the core issue that needs to be settled for peace and stability in the region whereas (Narendra) Modi is not ready to compromise on Kashmir,” Mirza Aslam Beg said in The Nation newspaper Sunday.
“It is Kashmir which will decide Modi’s future because the key to regional peace lies with him,” Beg said.
The general reminded Modi that for three decades, Afghanistan had served as the “strategic base of resistance†for militants in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Syria and Jammu and Kashmir.
“After the withdrawal of occupation forces from Afghanistan by end of this year, the jehadis would turn towards Kashmir, as they did in 1990, after the Soviet withdrawal, raising the threshold of confrontation between India and Pakistan to a dangerous level.
“Before that happens, the two countries have to find an amicable and peaceful solution of the Kashmir issue. There is no other alternative,” he added.