Musharraf warns of proxy war with India in Afghanistan

KARACHI: The departure of Nato combat forces from Afghanistan could push India and Pakistan towards a proxy war in the troubled state, Pakistan’s former military chief General Pervez Musharraf warned in an interview with AFP.

Pakistan’s support is seen as crucial to Afghan peace as US-led forces pull out by the end of this year after 13 years battling the Taliban.

But the former strongman said calming tension between India and Pakistan — running high at the moment after some of the worst cross-border firing in years — is key to peace in Afghanistan.

“The danger for Pakistan is… the Indian influence in Afghanistan,” he told AFP at his house in Karachi.

“That is another danger for the whole region and for Pakistan because Indian involvement there has an anti-Pakistan connotation. They (India) want to create an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan.”