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India "Not Averse" To Include Pakistan In Peace Talks
SRINAGAR, India, May 16 (News Agencies) - India's pointman on Kashmir, K.C. Pant, said in a letter to a separatist leader released Wednesday that New Delhi was not averse to include Pakistan in a "graduated peace process" on Kashmir.
"The Government of India is not averse to engage Pakistan in meaningful talks on Jammu and Kashmir, and is hopeful that Pakistan will cooperate with India and initiate measures that would facilitate the process," the letter said.
"New Delhi has taken, and is willing to take, such steps as would contribute to a meaningful dialogue; being the initiator [of a peace process], we are committed to its success," Pant said.
The Indian official did not elaborate on the measures to be initiated by Islamabad.
In the past, New Delhi has urged Islamabad to stop its support to "cross-border terrorism" in Kashmir. However, the subject was not mentioned in the letter.
Pant stated New Delhi's position in a two-page missive to Kashmiri political leader Shabir Shah in response to clarifications sought by him on an Indian offer for negotiations with Kashmiri groups announced last month.
Shah, who heads the pro-independence Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), had earlier sent two envoys to New Delhi to clarify India's official position on the talks before engaging in a dialogue.
Shah's aides circulated copies of the letter among journalists. A special emissary delivered Pant's missive on Tuesday.
"It is only in an atmosphere of peace that an agreed solution for the Jammu and Kashmir problem can be evolved. An agreed solution should, indeed, be the end result of a dialogue," Pant's letter said.
Pant also said that "at this stage", the Indian government was "keen to understand the concerns of all sections of the people" of the Indian-administered part of Kashmir.
He proposed a new meeting with Shah as all issues "are not amenable to summary disposal through an exchange of letters."
"We should move ahead in search of peace and of an agreed and peaceful solution."
So far, Shah has been the only Kashmiri leader who has shown interest in New Delhi's offer for talks which was announced four months after India's unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir. The "suspension of combat operations" is due to expire at the end of the month.
The All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), Kashmir's main alliance of political groups, had rejected India's offer for talks arguing that any dialogue on Kashmir's future must include Pakistan.
Kashmiri outfits have rejected India's offer for talks and warned that any group entering into a dialogue with New Delhi would be branded traitors and dealt with severely.
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since 1947 and is claimed by both. Most the population favors either joining Pakistan or total independence.
The conflict has claimed more than 34,000 lives since 1989, according to Indian figures. Separatist leaders say the death toll is twice as high.
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