Pervez Musharraf excoriated the United States and the West on Wednesday, saying his country does not consider them "trustworthy allies" in the war against terrorism.
Speaking to BBC's Newsnight, the former president of Pakistan, who seized power through a military coup d'état in 1999, said: "Do you know that in Pakistan we consider United States not very trustworthy? Every Pakistani considers that.”
Musharraf was reacting to the massacre of 141 children at the military school in Peshawar on Tuesday by members of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, a crime he called a “black day" for his country.
The retired four-star general said of the terrorists who carried out the atrocity "they have no right to be called Muslims," adding: "They have no right to be called even human beings, they are animals… We must crush them."
On the suggestion that Tuesday’s attack marked a failure of Pakistani tactics in dealing with the TTP, the former leader insisted his country had been "sincere" in trying to counter the problem of terrorism.
When asked if the West might feel more able to trust Pakistan to root out the terrorists following the massacre, Musharraf shot back, saying his countrymen do not consider it a "trustworthy ally."
"You have your own ways of dealing with the problem in Afghanistan; we have our own ways of dealing with problems, or in Afghanistan, which influences Pakistan," he said.
Musharraf warned against the United States “micromanaging” counterterrorism in other countries, arguing that the “tactical modalities” should be left to Pakistan.
“So therefore, please, the tactics of handling situations, the difference comes in when you start dictating micromanagement and the tactical modalities of handling the issue," he said. "That is where differences come in. And that is where you feel that we are not very trustworthy -- and we also feel you are not trustworthy."
He continued: "Leave the modalities of how we deal with it, in Pakistan, to us. Because every country has its problems; every country has its internal dynamics, which they have to fit into while they are dealing with extremism and terrorism.”
Musharraf said that those trying to deal with terrorism in Pakistan are not playing a “double role” as is the fear in the West, and that his country was “trying to handle the situation as best as [it] can.”
Below are pictures of the Taliban fighters who stormed the military-run school in Pakistan: