India trying to create 'anti-Pakistan' Afghanistan: Musharraf

Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has accused India of seeking to "create an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan" as part of its bid to dominate South Asia.

Musharraf made these comments at the Washington Ideas Forum, ABC News has reported.

"In Afghanistan, there is some kind of a proxy conflict going on between Pakistan and India," the former military ruler said. 

"India is trying to create an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan," he alleged.

India has a vision of dominating the region and aims to "create a weak Pakistan," he added.

Musharraf said he understood that India didn't want to take over Pakistan militarily, but it wanted to dominate Pakistan in the areas of foreign policy, economic policy, trade and commerce.

"That is how you suppress, control or dominate another country," he added.

Musharraf also complained that India has been training Afghan diplomats, soldiers and intelligence officers, and that the training should stop.

The former president said he was convinced that Osama bin Laden hiding in Abbottabad, Pakistan, was not about the Pakistan government's complicity, but "it was a terrible case of negligence which must be explained by Pakistan."

If bin Laden was hiding there for five years, he said, it would have included two years during his rule, "so whether anyone in this hall believes it or not, I did not know.  So therefore, I am 500 percent sure that I didn't know so, therefore, there was no complicity." 

He also noted that locals said they did not know bin Laden was hiding in the Abbotabad compound.
 
Musharraf felt that the worsening US-Pakistan relationship might be because of the lack of a personal relationship between the leaders of both countries.   

He said that his personal relationships with former US President George Bush and former Secretary of State Colin Powell helped ease tensions.  He recalled that Powell said to him, "Let's talk general to general," which resulted "in straight, upright talking" that resolved issues.

"I wonder whether that exists now, that understanding, that mutual confidence," Musharraf said.

"Maybe it is not there and, therefore, yes, there is a total breakdown of confidence and that is what is harming the relationship," he said.