Islamabad, Oct. 10 (PTI): Deposed Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif has said that Gen Pervez Musharraf launched the Kargil operations without taking into confidence the government or the chiefs of the navy and air force.

The violent protests during the visit of the then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Lahore in 1999 were stage-managed by intelligence agencies, he added.

?As the chief of army staff, Pervez Musharraf ventured into a tactical conflict having strategic ramifications with India on Kargil without even taking into confidence the Prime Minister, naval and air chiefs,? Sharif said, refuting former Prime Minister Shujaat Hussain?s July statement that the ousted leader was briefed about the operations.

Sharif said Musharraf had not even informed fellow corps commanders of the army about his Kargil operation and the chiefs of navy and air force had protested to the general for keeping them in the dark.

?In a meeting of the defence committee of the cabinet, after the Kargil battle was well underway, it shocked me when naval and air chiefs strongly complained about not having been taken into confidence before the Kargil misadventure,? Sharif said in an interview to the weekend magazine of Dawn, a Pakistani daily.