Pakistan admits creating “Islamic” terrorists that it is battling now

THERE will be a tendency in India to take President Asif Zardari's remarks on how Pakistan itself created religious extremists "to achieve some short- term tactical objectives", with a generous dose of salt. The ever- smiling Pakistani leader is known to come up with dramatic statements and gestures. But even so, there is some value in the man who is president of the country saying it like it is. It adds to creating a climate of opinion which sees these extremists for what they are — terrorists — and not, as the president himself pointed out, as "heroes". Even today, there are sections of public opinion in Pakistan who lionise these extremists out of some misguided patriotism. – Editorial in Mail Today, New Delhi President Zardari has also had the courage to speak up in favour of unconditional peace and normalisation with India. In a sense, he is carrying the torch forward from where General Musharraf himself left it in 2007 after a radical about- turn in strategic thinking in 2004 about the nature of the threat from India and the future prospects of Kashmir. But there is one difference. Even as both say that the Taliban is the real threat rather than India, Mr Zardari makes no bones about the need for an unequivocal about- turn in India policy while General Musharraf hums and haws tactically in deference to decades of carefully nurtured " anti- India sensitivities" in the military. -- Najam Sethi, Lahore