Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had asked the ISI in May 1992 to continue its covert operations in Kashmir despite a stern US warning, says a book written by a former Pakistani diplomat Hussain Haqqani.
The book titled 'Magnificent Delusions' is slated to be released next week.
Instead of changing his course, Sharif supported the spy agency ISI and the army noting that Pakistan could not shutdown military operations in India and to counter such a warning from the US, he decided to allocate $ 2 million as a first step to reach out to the American media and the Congress.
In fact, Sharif made his special assistant Hussain Haqqani in-charge of the lobbying efforts in the US, which the latter refused and then agreed to go to Sri Lanka on an ambassadorial posting, the book discloses.
Giving a detailed first person account of the events in May 1992, after a letter in this regard from the then US secretary of state James Baker was delivered to Sharif, Haqqani writes that the letter was first ignored by Sharif.
In the letter dated May 10, 1992, Baker threatened that unless Pakistan discontinued its support for terrorism in Kashmir, the US might declare it a state sponsor of terrorism.
"We have information indicating that the ISI and others intend to continue to provide material support to groups that have engaged terrorism," read the letter dated May 10, according to Haqqani in the book.
"I must take that information very seriously," Baker wrote but discounted Pakistani claims that the support for the Kashmiri militants came from private groups and Islamist parties and not from the government. It appreciated Sharif's earlier promises that 'Pakistan will take distance itself from terrorist activities against India'," the letter said.
According to Baker, the US law required applying "an onerous package of sanctions" against "states found to be supporting acts of international terrorism and I have the responsibility of carrying legislation."
The letter was delivered to Sharif by the then US envoy to Pakistan Nicholas Platt who also attached talking points along. The talking points said that the US is "very confident" of its information.
"Your intelligence - Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate and elements of the Army are supporting Kashmiri and Sikh militants who carry out terrorism," Platt affirmed.
"We have information indicating that the ISI and others intend to continue to provide material support to groups that have engaged terrorism," read the letter dated May 10, according to Haqqani in the book.
"I must take that information very seriously," Baker wrote but discounted Pakistani claims that the support for the Kashmiri militants came from private groups and Islamist parties and not from the government. It appreciated Sharif's earlier promises that 'Pakistan will take distance itself from terrorist activities against India'," the letter said.
According to Baker, the US law required applying "an onerous package of sanctions" against "states found to be supporting acts of international terrorism and I have the responsibility of carrying legislation."
The letter was delivered to Sharif by the then US envoy to Pakistan Nicholas Platt who also attached talking points along. The talking points said that the US is "very confident" of its information.
"Your intelligence - Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate and elements of the Army are supporting Kashmiri and Sikh militants who carry out terrorism," Platt affirmed.
This support, Platt said, comprised "providing weapons, training and assistance in infiltration move all ambiguity. He insisted "we're talking about covert Government of Pakistan support," the book says.