Imran Khan on the Kashmir Dispute

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Everybody is very aware that you’re both nuclear powers, that there have been wars fought between you over this very issue in the past. And they’re concerned this might, as you say, it become a flash point but a terrible flash point. What can you say about — what would your reaction be? How far are you prepared to go?

IMRAN KHAN, PAKISTAN PRIME MINISTER: Christiane, that’s why I’m here. If it was just something which would have remained localized between India and Pakistan, even if a conventional war, the world is not really pushed about it, but this can go out of control. And I’ll tell you how. What are the narrative of Narendra Modi’s government is that the Kashmiris want this, this whole thing has been done to make Kashmir prosperous and developed, and Pakistan is the spinner in the works by sending in terrorists. They’re already accusing us that the — I think the —

AMANPOUR: They are saying it again, the military chiefs that 500 camps are being used and Pakistan is mobilizing militants in Kashmir, terrorism.

KHAN: This was predictable. Why are they saying it? Because they want to divert the world’s attention from what is going to be a massacre. So, to divert the attention, this is the mantra that the Islamic terrorism. And Islamic terrorism since 9/11 has meant that the world just looks the other way. You can violate all the human rights. You can do anything of those people by calling them Islamic terrorists. That’s what India has done, Narendra modi. My point is, what is Pakistan going to get out of this by sending in 500 terrorists? There are 900 — almost a million troops there. What are they going to do there? The only thing they will do is that the — on the pretext of going after terrorists, they would be more oppression off the people of Kashmir. And secondly, they will divert the world’s attention towards Pakistan. And so, I have specifically told Pakistan, people of Pakistan, anyone going into Kashmir will be an enemy of Pakistan and an enemy of Kashmiris for the reasons that I’ve just told you. It’s the first time two nuclear armed countries are face to face. If this goes like it happened in February, I mean, we immediately return the pilot when we shot down the plane because we didn’t want any escalation.

AMANPOUR: And actually, the world thought that you had behaved very responsibly in pulling back from that.

KHAN: And I told the Indian public, also, I said, look, if this goes further, it will soon spiral out of control beyond my hands and your prime minister’s. And guess what, you know, Narendra Modi, once we returned the pilot, his entire election campaign was that Pakistan is so scared of me that they immediately returned the pilot and I’m going teach Pakistan a lesson. And this was a trailer, the film is about to start. The whole election campaign was this jingoism, this whipping up hysteria, war hysteria against Pakistan, and he swept the elections.