US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Hot debate over Kargil on Qatari TV

The Kargil infiltration led to a verbal duel between an Indian Islamic scholar and a Pakistani propagandist on Qatari television last weekend.

The two-hour live debate took place on the Jazeera satellite channel's top-ranking programme, Opposite Directions.

Dr Zafarul Islam Khan, who heads the Delhi-based Institute of Islamic and Arab Studies, shot holes in the Pakistani's arguments that Kashmir was an ''Islamic issue'' and the infiltrators are ''freedom fighters.''

Dr Khan said Pakistan was not a guardian of Muslims and had no right to speak in the name of Islam. Actually, India has stronger Islamic credentials with its 150 million Muslims, he added. Pakistan has only 100 million Muslims.

Pakistan, he said, was only interested in the territory of Kashmir. ''If it (Pakistan) was really interested in the people it would not have caused the death of so many Kashmiris,'' he added.

Dr Khan said Pakistan-foisted militancy in Kashmir has decidedly waned and has been reduced to some hilly and forest regions of the valley and Jammu where mostly foreign militants operate.

The Kashmiri youth have deserted Pakistan having understood its game in using them as a ''fodder'' to keep the issue alive and also internationalise it, he added.

Dr Khan edits two academic journals, Muslim and Arab Perspectives and Journal of Islamic History, and has authored over 40 books in Arabic and English.

UNI

The Kargil Crisis

Tell us what you think of this report