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India, Pakistan Optimistic Over Peace Talks
NEW DELHI, May 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - India and Pakistan remained positive over planned peace talks Thursday, despite a caustic reaction from Pakistan over India's decision to scrap its six-month-old ceasefire in disputed Kashmir.
A surprise offer by India to engage in talks with its rival was unveiled by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee late Wednesday, after New Delhi acknowledged the failure of its alleged six-month-old ceasefire in Kashmir and announced resumption of combat operations against Kashmiri groups fighting for self-determination.
At the same time, Vajpayee formally invited Pakistan's military leader Pervez Musharraf to India for discussions, ending a cold-shoulder policy that had been in place since the general assumed power in a coup in October 1999.
Pakistan has yet to receive a formal invitation to talks, but indicated it would respond positively, despite issuing an emphatic condemnation of the ceasefire termination, saying India would escalate "state terrorism" in the troubled Himalayan state.
Rivalry over Kashmir has been the subject of two of the three wars between the two South Asian adversaries since 1947 with more than 35,000 lives claimed since 1989.
However, Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said the end of the ceasefire would not be a hurdle to opening discussions.
"The summit meeting will provide an opportunity for dialogue aimed at a permanent settlement of the long standing Kashmir problem," Sattar said.
"A settlement in conformity with the will of the Kashmiri people will bring an end to the travail of the Kashmiri people."
There will be no delays from Pakistan with regard to the invitation for talks, he said.
India's initiative Thursday led to a rally in Pakistan's financial markets and received a warm welcome from the new Bush administration in Washington. "We certainly applaud India's invitation to General Musharraf to go to India for talks," said State Department spokesman Philip Reeker.
"We have encouraged both countries, as you know, to engage in a process of dialogue, and I think they have the opportunity now to make real progress towards the reduction of tensions and a resolution of their differences through peaceful means."
Formal contacts between India and Pakistan have been frozen since a border conflict in the Kargil sector of Kashmir in 1999. The clashes left 1,000 dead on both sides.
If talks do take place, they will be the first since a summit at Lahore in February 1999 between Vajpayee and deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif, which took place after Pakistan carried out nuclear tests in a tit-for-tat response to India's detonations in May 1998.
Although neither side has indicated it will be setting preconditions for the proposed talks, New Delhi Thursday said its offer did not indicate a U-turn on its opposition to what it calls Muslim secessionist violence in Kashmir. It also rejected the idea of the use of intermediaries, particularly from the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC).
"The new initiative is aimed at conveying two messages - although moratorium against pro-active actions in Kashmir has ended, our peace process has not," Indian Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani said.
"If we want to hold talks with Pakistan, we can do so directly without any role by an intermediary. There is no scope for the Hurriyat in this regard," Advani said of the APHC, an alliance of two-dozen self-determination groups based in Indian-held Kashmir.
For their part, Kashmiri self-determination political parties reacted cautiously to the Indian decision to have direct talks with Pakistan.
"Let us wait and watch. We still believe that tripartite talks could produce better results by including the principal party, which is Kashmir," said Abdul Gani Bhat, chairman of the APHC.
Bhat's comments were seen as reflecting concern in sections of the APHC that they and their cause would be marginalized should India and Pakistan begin bilateral discussions.
Meanwhile, in Kashmir, Indian security forces shot dead six Kashmiri fighters Thursday. Those killed belonged to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba armed group, the spokesman said.
Following a tip-off, troops belonging to the Indian army cordoned off a village in Langet district, 70 kilometers (43 miles) north of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar, and shot dead the six fighters, he said.
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