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Pathankot-like attacks will keep happening: Pervez Musharraf warns India

By FnF Correspondent | PUBLISHED: 13, Jan 2016, 15:44 pm IST | UPDATED: 14, Jan 2016, 22:46 pm IST

Pathankot-like attacks will keep happening: Pervez Musharraf warns India New Delhi: Former Pakistan president General (retired) Pervez Musharraf said that India should not 'overreact' to the terror strike on the IAF base in Pathankot, as such incidents would keep happening in the future due to the prevalence of terrorism in both countries.

In an interview to a Pakistani news channel, Musharraf said that India and Pakistan are both victims of terrorism, and should not overreact when an attack like the one in Pathankot happened.

"Terrorism is prevalent in both India and Pakistan. We are also victims of the same so we should not overreact to what happened in Pathankot. Yes, of course we want to control such incidents, but one should get hyper over such incidents," Musharraf said.

"India's first reaction to every terrorist attack is Pakistan but India is not free of terrorism or extremism themselves," he added.

Accusing New Delhi of creating pressure on Islamabad when it came to terror attacks, Musharraf alleged that extremism was quite prevalent in India as well.

"India simply can't create pressure on Pakistan when it comes to terrorism. We may be a small country but we have honour of our own. There are lots of areas in India where extremism is rampant. India always treats terrorism as a one-sided issue and that infuriates me. They can't just bulldoze us when something happens there," he stated.

Musharraf went on to say that there was a lot of 'disgruntlement' among the Muslim community in India ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power.

Comparing Modi's leadership with that of his former counterpart Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he added that ties between India and Pakistan had flourished under the latter as he was more 'sincere' in his approach.

"I interacted with Vajpayee sahab and at the time we had very good ties with India. It all comes down to leadership in the end. We were moving forward with him and Manmohan sahab. Unfortunately, it's not working under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi. His popularity has dampened post his loss in Delhi and Bihar," Musharraf said.

"Vajapayee and Manmohan were more sincere when it came to resolving dispute. A good leader is always flexible. Things can't work out if you are hell-bent on your own stand," he added.

On Prime Minister Modi's recent visit to Islamabad, he added that it was just a case of 'showmanship' and there was nothing substantial about it.