ISLAMABAD, Aug 13, Reuter: Pakistan President Mohammad Zia Ul—Haq warned India on Saturday to stop meddling in Afghanistan and accused it of acting as an agent for the Soviet Union.
In an interview with the government owned Pakistan Times, Zia accused India of trying to stop an unfriendly Islamic government from coming to power in Kabul.
He said India had been a silent spectator through eight years of soviet military involvement in Afghanistan but now wanted say in its future.
Now India is out of the game he said. They missed the bus and they are now trying (to find) how best to jump on to the Bandwagon.
Zia said the Soviet Union, which must withdraw half its more than 100,000 troops in Afghanistan by Monday under the Geneva accords, was using its ally India to raise the cry that a fundamentalist government was unacceptable.
He told the English language daily India had no business, at this stage, to interfere and it could not be allowed to throw a spanner in the works.
India has never openly condemned the Soviet Union for its military intervention in Afghanistan, but since late last year it has sought a role in brokering a solution to the conflict.
It has promoted former Afghan King Zahir Shah as a good candidate to lead a broad based administration that could heal the wounds of war between the soviet backed Kabul government and Mujahideen guerrillas.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 19, 1988
