|
Setback
to Indo-Pak Ties Normalization, Talks May Start At Weekend
 |
|
Pakistani
military spokesman Gen Qureshi showing the body of a Pakistani
officer kidnapped, tortured and killed by the Indian army June
19.
|
By
IOL South Asia Correspondent
NEW
DELHI, June 26 (IslamOnline) - The Indo-Pak game of see-saw has
resumed in right earnest. Resorting to his classic doublespeak, Prime
Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee started the current verbal war between
India and Pakistan when he said Sunday, June 23, that cross-border
infiltration had not stopped and that militants from across the border
still continued to sneak into the Indian-administered Jammu and
Kashmir. There was no shift in Pakistan’s policy insofar as
infiltration is concerned, Vajpayee has reportedly remarked.
Surprisingly
though, Vajpayee’s statement, which is at variance with the remarks
of his own defense minister and army chief, has come only after four
days (less than a week) when defense minister George Fernandes on
Wednesday June 19 said that there was “considerable decline in
cross-border terrorism as well as infiltration.”
On
the same day, the chief of the Indian Army, Gen. Sunderajan
Padmanabhan, confirmed Fernandes’ statement, saying there had been a
"dramatic drop" in the number of cross-border incursions in
Jammu and Kashmir.
“There
is no change in Pakistan’s policy on cross-border terrorism.
Everyday, we are getting reports that infiltration [by militants into
Kashmir] is continuing,” Vajpayee said in an interview with American
magazine Newsweek. The latest issue of the magazine also quoted
Vajpayee as reiterating his oft-repeated statement that India was
ready for talks with Pakistan and discussion of all issues, including
Kashmir if Islamabad ended cross-border terrorism and fulfilled its
promises to dismantle terrorist training camps.
“If
Pakistan implements all the assurances given to us, then a new
beginning can be made. India will be ready to have talks with Pakistan
and discuss all issues, including Jammu and Kashmir,” Vajpayee
asserted.
However,
projecting the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
government’s rather confused state of mind on its Pakistan policy,
defense minister George Fernandes expressed his views which are almost
contrary to that of the prime minister’s. Speaking at a press
conference at Vijayawada in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh,
Fernandes on June 16 said that there was a “perceptible change in
Pakistan’s behavior towards India of late.”
Commenting
on the situation on the Indo-Pak border which has been undergoing
change now and then, Fernandes said, “The change is very perceptible
now.” Later, again on Wednesday June 19, Fernandes, after meeting
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield, said” “So far as
trans-border terrorism is concerned, there has been considerable
decline.”
The
army chief also echoed Fernandes’ view. “Infiltration has gone
down significantly,” said Gen. Padmanabhan, adding that since May
27, “we have had probably just one attempt which we have
intercepted.”
Before
the prime minister’s latest statement, Gen. Padmanabhan’s
assessment on the prevailing Indo-Pak situation was supposedly
considered to be the first of its kind by India since Pakistan
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf had on June 6 categorically assured
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to halt the incursions
on a permanent basis.
Nearly
one million troops are presently deployed on both sides of the border.
The Indo-Pak standoff had started when the Indian Parliament was
attacked December 13 and New Delhi accused Pakistan of sponsoring the
attacks. Tensions heightened when an Indian army camp was attacked in
Jammu May 14. The crisis threatened to blow off, thus resulting in a
probable fourth Indo-Pak war.
There
was a significant change in the situation on the ground with the
defense minister and army chief’s statements. Intense U.S. pressure
with a string of diplomatic visits brought down the temperature
between the two nuclear-armed rivals. India pulled back its warships
from the Arabian Sea and lifted the ban on overflights by Pakistani
commercial aircraft. These moves from the Indian side indicated that
the situation was slowly returning to normal.
Pakistan
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in an interview published in the same
issue of Newsweek, said, however, that he never made the
commitment that infiltration across the Line of Control would come to
an end on a "permanent" basis.
 |
|
Indian
soldiers firing field gun near Line of Control in Jammu
|
The
U.S. embassy spokesperson at New Delhi clarified that President
Musharraf met Armitage at Islamabad June 6 and assured Washington that
"ending of infiltration across the Line of Control would be
permanent.... We have seen positive results from that commitment and
we have also seen significant positive steps by India since
then."
President
Musharraf, while denying that he had given an "assurance" to
the U.S. of permanently ending cross-border terrorism, maintained at
the same time that the normalization of the situation depended on
India's response to its demand for "discussion" on Kashmir.
"I've
told President Bush nothing is happening across the Line of Control.
This is the assurance I've given. I'm not to give you an assurance
that for years nothing will happen. We have to have response from
India, a discussion about Kashmir," Musharraf was quoted as
saying.
When
Armitage was visiting Islamabad, they did talk about dismantling of
terrorist camps in Pakistan-administered Kashmir (Azad Kashmir).
"Kashmir is witnessing a freedom struggle. What I said was that
there is no movement across the Line of Control," Musharraf said.
As
the Indo-Pak situation threatens to backslide, observers in the
national capital say the two sides are still locked up in their
respective traditional stances on the issue. Pakistan demands
reciprocity in terms of initiation of dialogue, which it feels India
has been avoiding. The shifting stances and wildly divergent
statements of Indian leaders make things more murky and unpredictable.
Meanwhile,
TNT, an online Indian daily newspaper, disclosed today, quoting
Pakistani foreign ministry sources, that India and Pakistan will most
probably revive “hotline diplomacy” at the foreign ministerial
level this weekend as a first step towards peace.
TNT
said that both India and Pakistan "may finally submit to the
United States for the resolution of the Kashmir issue," adding
that "the role of a facilitator that the Americans have so far
been playing may turn into that of a mediator if the strategy to
resolve the issue bilaterally does not work."
Washington
has given firm assurances to both India and Pakistan that it is
planning to get itself "engaged" in the region which start
from August, it added.
|
