Security was evident as students enter Salomon Hall to listen to former Pakistan president Gen. Pervez Musharraf Tuesday night. More than 800 listened to his talk on leadership experiences.

PROVIDENCE — Former Pakistan president Gen. Pervez Musharraf, speaking before a capacity crowd at Brown University on Tuesday night, called fundamentalist terrorists the greatest threat to stability in the south Asian region and declared that his homeland and neighboring India and Afghanistan represent a “nexus of extremism.”

But he rejected the notion that Pakistan supplies arms to Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan and said that Muslim extremists in India pose a “growing” concern for the international community.

“It’s quite the opposite. The arms and money flow into Pakistan from Afghanistan, not the other way,” he said.

The retired general pointed to the Students Islamic Movement of India as an example of the extremism growing among the Muslim youth in India. “There is a sense of frustration … of unequal opportunity and discrimination” in India, he said.

Musharraf, in a 45-minute speech about “leadership experiences,” blamed the current economic crisis in Pakistan –– which he fled from last year following his resignation amid large-scale unrest and calls for impeachment –– on the country’s current leaders.

“It’s not a crisis of nation or people, but a crisis of leadership. Simple as that,” Musharraf said of the massive exodus of Pakistani wealth and foreign investment from the country in the past year.

But Musharraf did not address the turmoil that ultimately ended his nine-year reign, including his 2007 attempted firing of the sitting Supreme Court chief justice, his subsequent suspension of the constitution, and the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto by an al-Qaida-linked militant group.

“I would have liked to have seen someone ask about what policies of governance he would have changed in retrospect,” said Arsalan Ali Faheem, president of the university’s Pakistani Students Association.

In his speech and a brief question-and-answer session, Musharraf defended Pakistan’s development of nuclear arms as a logical response to India’s development of nuclear weapons, but still called for peace between to the two longstanding rivals.

“I am called a man of war, but I am a man of peace because I understand the ravages of war,” he said. “Military [action] only buys time, it does not deliver the cure.”

Musharraf, 66, came to power in a bloodless coup in October 1999, joining a long line of military rulers in the majority Muslim country.

Following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Musharraf became America’s chief ally in south Asia during President George W. Bush’s wide-ranging war on terror.

But Musharraf’s alliance with the Bush administration was strained, as the mountainous western territories of Pakistan were increasingly identified as a Taliban refuge and the potential hiding place for al-Queda leader Osama bin Laden.

Under increasing demand for his impeachment, Musharraf resigned in August 2008, and was succeeded by President Asif Ali Zardari, who is the late Bhutto’s husband.

Since his resignation, Musharraf has been on an extended international speaking tour, using London as his base. He faces criminal charges in his homeland related to the events of 2007.

On Tuesday, there was heightened security on the Brown campus for Musharraf, who had been the target of at least two assassination attempts during his presidency. Musharraf’s own security detail was bolstered by officials from the U.S. State Department and armed university police, according to organizers.

The main auditorium at Salomon Hall was filled to capacity with about 600 seated, and a nearby overflow room, where the speech was televised, had about 200 additional attendees.

The speech was organized by a student group, the Brown Lecture Board, which in the past has brought other high-profile speakers to the campus, including filmmaker Oliver Stone, activist Jesse Jackson and Ehud Barak, the former prime minister of Israel.

Musharraf did not grant any interviews before or after his speech, and media was restricted to the overflow room.

University officials said those arrangements were made at the request of Musharraf’s publicist, who had approached the board in the spring. The lecture board declined to release Musharraf’s speaking fee.

pmarcelo@projo.com