|
Amid Fresh Firing: India Rules out Talks with Pakistan
MADRAS, India, Oct 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee Thursday again ruled out formal talks with Pakistan, news agencies reported.
"There is no proposal to have formal talks," Vajpayee told reporters in Madras, where he was attending the wedding of the ruling BJP party president's son.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had telephoned Vajpayee earlier this month and urged him or Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh to visit Pakistan, amid rising regional tension triggered by U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan.
The talks would follow a July summit between Musharraf and Vajpayee in the Taj Mahal city of Agra that ended in deadlock over disputed Kashmir.
India, which wants Washington to target Islamic activists in Kashmir as part of its "war on terrorism", on Monday shelled 11 posts in Pakistani-run Kashmir in what it termed a "punitive" action against infiltrators.
The violence flared immediately after a lightening visit to India and Pakistan by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell aimed at calming tensions over the disputed Himalayan territory, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Hours after Powell left New Delhi Wednesday, a "heavy exchange" of machine-gun fire broke out across the border, Indian defense sources said.
Indian defense spokesman Major C.K. Aggarwal said Pakistan started the firing and "necessary retaliation" was taken by Indian troops.
"For the first time Pakistan used automatic grenade launchers and heavy-caliber weapons in this area and fired on civilian areas," he said.
No military casualties were reported, but with tensions running high 25 people were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir: 17 Muslim activists, seven Indian security personnel and a civilian who was formerly part of a self-determination outfit.
India, for its part, said its attack, breaking a 10-month lull in border hostilities, killed 30 "terrorists" who were trying to enter Indian territory.
While Pakistan said a woman was killed, and 25 civilians injured in an act of Indian "state-sponsored terrorism".
In one of the worst outbreaks of fighting, at Haripura village, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar, three Muslim activists and three Indian soldiers were killed.
"It was a seven-hour-long gunbattle which started late Wednesday and ended Thursday," a police spokesman said.
In the northern Kupwara district, police said the Indian army shot dead six activists near the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
A senior leader of Kashmir's ruling National Conference party survived an assassination attempt when suspected "militants" fired two rifle grenades at a rally he was holding in Baramulla, 55 kilometers (32 miles) north of Srinagar.
No one was hurt in the assassination bid against Works Minister Ali Mohammad, although people were injured in a stampede to leave after the explosions, news agencies reported.
For his part, Powell had to conduct a delicate balancing act between India and Pakistan, nuclear-armed powers that have both pledged support for the U.S.-led "war on terrorism".
He said the Kashmir dispute, the focal point of two wars between India and Pakistan, should be resolved by dialogue, without violence and taking into consideration the "aspirations" of Kashmiris.
But his comments seemed to do little to soothe the archrivals, with Pakistan quickly accusing India of making troop movements that may "prove to be a threat".
India said its top military commander spoke with his Pakistani counterpart Wednesday to refute the claims.
"We have no intention of taking advantage of the already complex situation being faced by our western neighbor," Lieutenant General SS Chahan told the Pakistanis, according to Brigadier Jaspal Singh.
But Singh told reporters that Chahan also stressed to Pakistan that, "if there is any attempt at infiltration, then we are duty bound to prevent it. This is self-evident."
Musharraf has been facing protests by religious groups angered by his support of U.S.-led strikes on neighboring Afghanistan.
More than 35,000 people have been killed since the start of the conflict in Kashmir since an uprising began 1989.
|
