New Delhi: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said he was angry and disappointed that India had blamed his government for last month's bomb blasts in Mumbai, which he said was the work of "freelance terrorists".
Musharraf, in an interview with Indian magazine Frontline conducted on August 1, said the accusations had been made immediately after the blasts, with "hardly any substantiated proof", as if he had ordered the attacks which killed 186 people.
"This is very, very annoying. It is disappointing," he said. "Such allegations lead to vitiating the atmosphere. It should not be done."
Indian officials say Pakistan-based Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba is a prime suspect for the blasts in India's financial capital.
Some officials have also pointed a finger at Pakistan's powerful military intelligence. But Musharraf said the lack of trust between the two countries was "pitiable", adding that they needed to learn to work together to combat extremism.
"There are freelance terrorists who are roaming around and doing this," he said.
The peace process between the old rivals was launched nearly three years ago but has recently run into trouble.
India is angry that Pakistan has not done enough to stop Islamic terrorists using its soil to support a separatist revolt in Indian Kashmir.
Pakistan feels that India is dragging its feet in the quest for a solution to their central dispute over the Himalayan region of Kashmir.
So Near Yet So Far
Musharraf is expected to meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Cuba next month.
While Musharraf remains hopeful for a lasting solution to the Kashmir dispute, some Pakistani diplomats are not optimistic.
"My personal opinion is, very near, and yet so far," Musharraf said, when asked how close a solution was.
"Very near, I say, because I think in realistic terms, it is doable," he said. "But yet so far because it needs the resolve of the leadership where India is concerned, I see there is a drag in that."
Musharraf said he saw a solution based on the gradual demilitarisation of Kashmir, with security handed over to the Kashmiri people.
Self-governance could follow, he said, with the "Line of Control" dividing Kashmir gradually becoming a soft border. India's Singh has also suggested that cross-border institutions could be established.
But Musharraf took the idea a little further, proposing "a joint management mechanism on top, consisting of representatives from Pakistan, India and Kashmir".
Without redrawing boundaries, that "superstructure" would give India and Pakistan some involvement and responsibility on both sides of the current border, he said.
There was no immediate comment from India to the interview. In the past, India has fiercely rejected the suggestion that Pakistan could have the right to comment on or control events in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
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