President General Pervez Musharraf has warned that "soft borders" in Kashmir are a confidence-building measure but not a solution to the conflict, a report said Monday. "Soft borders are not a solution," Musharraf was quoted as telling Britain's Financial Times. "Many magazines and articles I read from the Indian side, some of them misrepresent this soft (border) as meaning a solution." "I don't see this as a solution at all. This may be a step towards confidence building, which could facilitate a solution," he said. The soft border concept has since been seized upon by commentators on both sides and suggests the easing of border controls, although the term has not been precisely defined.
The arrest of al Qaeda operative Abu Faraj al-Libbi has failed to provide any clues on Osama bin Laden's whereabouts, he said.
President hailed this month's arrest of al Qaeda's alleged number three as vital in helping to sever links between the terror network's members and central command.
"We have broken their back," Musharraf said. "They cease to exist as a cohesive, homogenous body under good command."
He added: "Whatever they are now capable of doing is individual and group actions divorced from central command and co-ordinated centrally. They are on the run in the mountains, not in contact with each other."
Although the arrest had not led investigators to bin Laden, the al Qaeda chief blamed for the September 11 attacks, it had led to other key arrests in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, Musharraf was quoted as saying.
"He is the man who was in charge of al Qaeda operations, internal and external and, of course, on a personal basis the man who masterminded the suicide attacks on me," Musharraf said. "I can't say for sure that we finally nailed them and finished them," he said. "I can't say that. "But we have taken over their sanctuaries, their communication centres, and left them in small batches, on the run and up in the mountains, relying on human couriers.
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