'Musharraf doubly humiliated in Islamabad'

Mishra was Vajpayae's National Security Advisor and a key player during the Agra and Islamabad talks.

Disagreeing with President Pervez Musharraf's view that the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had felt humiliated at the 2001 Agra Summit, his top aide Brajesh Mishra on Monday night said the Pakistani leader was "doubly humiliated" in Islamabad in 2004 when he agreed not to allow his country's territory to be used for terrorism.

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Mishra, who was Vajpayae's National Security Advisor and a key player during the Agra and Islamabad talks, said the Agra Summit failed as "Pakistan insisted on a joint statement which would accord primacy to the Kashmir issue and, at the same time, he (Musharraf) refused to acknowledge...The phenomenon of cross border terrorism".

Mishra was replying to questions on Musharraf's remarks in his book In the Line of Fire that both he and Vajpayee had been "humiliated" at the Agra summit in 2001 "by someone above" the two of them.

"Gen Musharraf says he and the Prime Minister were humiliated (at Agra). The Prime Minister did not not feel humiliated at all," Mishra said.

He said Musharraf was "doubly humiliated in Islamabad exactly two-and-a-half years later (on January 6, 2004) when he agreed to a reference to India's concern over cross border terrorism and he agreed that he will not allow any territory under control of Pakistan to be used for terrorism anywhere in the world.

"It was on this basis that Prime Minister Vajpayee agreed to start the composite dialogue (between the two countries) to tackle all issues including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. So, if he says that he felt humiliated in Agra, he was doubly humiliated in Islamabad," he said.