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Zardari in power tussle with Army |
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President Zardari is locked in a power struggle with the Army over his plans to ease tensions with India and his assertion that Taliban, not India, is the greatest threat to his country, a news report said. Quoting sources close to the Pakistan Army Chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, the Daily Telegraph of London reported on June 26 that senior officers are alarmed at the President’s plans to divert troops and aircraft from the India-Pakistan border and deploy them in a new offensive against Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
Zardari’s comments that India no longer posed a military threat to Pakistan and "the greatest threat came from Islamic militants in its tribal areas along with Pakistan’s frontier with Afghanistan", raised hopes of a thaw in the frosty relationship between India and Pakistan, the report said.
The report quoted Lt. Gen. (retd.) Talat Masood, a respected Pakistani political analyst, as saying Pakistan’s military chiefs firmly believed that there must first be progress in finding a solution to the Kashmir dispute.
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