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Pakistan Pledges "Maximum Restraint" On Kashmir Border
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan on Saturday vowed "maximum restraint" along the disputed Kashmir border and offered to hold "meaningful dialogue" with India and separatists to resolve the issue.
The initiative followed an Indian ceasefire offer for the month of Ramadan in Kashmir, which went into effect midnight Monday.
The United States had welcomed the Indian gesture and called on Pakistan to respond.
"With immediate effect, the Pakistan armed forces deployed along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir will observe maximum restraint," Foreign Secretary Inamul Haq told a news conference here.
"The Government of Pakistan expects that the government of India will reciprocate this initiative and cease firing across the Line of Control," that divides the strife-torn Himalayan region between Pakistan and India.
Haq said Pakistan "does not exercise any control" on Kashmiri groups fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir, when asked if Islamabad would ask them to curb their activities.
Haq also said Islamabad was willing to enter into "meaningful dialogue" with India and proposed that the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), the Srinagar-based main Kashmiri alliance, hold talks with Pakistan and India separately to pave the way for three-way talks.
He invited the executive committee of APHC to visit Pakistan during Ramadan for consultations and urged India to allow the visit to go ahead.
India should also hold consultative talks with the APCH so that the dispute could be resolved "in accordance with the will of the people of state," the minister said.
"We are not asking APHC to work as a mediator. Its executive committee should meet both governments to discuss ways to initiate a process of dialogue.
"India's announced suspension of military operations against the Kashmiri freedom fighters will be meaningful if it is combined with a purposeful dialogue for peaceful settlement of Jammu Kashmir," Haq said, adding that talks could begin after Ramadan if New Delhi responded positively.
Islamabad would formally convey its peace initiative to India as well as to the rest of the world.
Haq also urged India to allow United Nations military observers to monitor the Line of Control.
"Stabilization of the ceasefire along the line of control will be facilitated by impartial monitoring," Haq said.
To add credibility to its claim for a peaceful settlement, the Indian government should end "repression" in Jammu and Kashmir, release all detainees and respect the fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people, he said.
Kashmir, divided between Pakistan and India and claimed by both, has caused two of the three wars between the South Asian neighbors since 1947 and a bloody Kargil border-conflict in the strife-torn region last year.
India has accused Pakistan of arming and training insurgent groups in Kashmir. Pakistan denies the charge but vows political and moral support for the campaign, calling it a legitimate struggle for self-determination.
A Ramadan ceasefire, offered by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on November 19th, was rejected by most Kashmiri groups as incidents of violence have continued.
It is the first time the Indian government has offered a unilateral ceasefire in Muslim-majority Kashmir since the launch in 1989 of the insurgency.
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