Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf [Images] has expressed surprise over former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's comments that the Agra [Images] Summit failed because the general did not accept that there was terrorism in Kashmir. "How could I accept this? We say there is a freedom movement and the Indian forces are involved in state terrorism in Kashmir," Musharraf said in an interview to ARY TV.
Musharraf in his book In The Line Of Fire has also said that both he and Vajpayee had been "humiliated" at the Agra summit in 2001 "by someone above".
The Pakistani leader said he had decided to cut short his stay in Agra twice after the Indians had "backed out" of what had been agreed earlier. However, he had been persuaded by his diplomats not to do so.
According to the General's account of the events in Agra, after two prolonged interactions with Vajpayee, a "balanced" joint declaration acceptable to both of them was drafted which contained a condemnation of terrorism and recognition that Kashmir needed to be resolved.
In a firm rejection of Musharraf's claim that some "power" was responsible for the collapse of the Agra summit, Vajpayee had said last month it failed because the general refused to describe the violence in Kashmir as terrorism.
He also expressed "surpise" at Musharraf's comments that both of them had been "humiliated" at the summit, saying "No one insulted the general and certainly no one insulted me."
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