India, Pak Remain Locked In Old Positions Despite Western Diplomacy
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| EU representative Solana with Indian Foreign minister Sinha |
By Md Zeyaul Haque, IOL South Asia Correspondent
NEW DELHI, July 27 (IslamOnline) - Despite intensive Western diplomatic efforts over the last few weeks to get the normalisation procession going between India and Pakistan, the two rival countries remain locked in their respective positions.
Although the tension between the two has relaxed considerably over the last few weeks, due to international efforts, nearly a million troops are still massed on the Line of Control (LoC) and the international border.
Continuing the Western effort to disengage the two sub-continental nuclear rivals, European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana was in India Friday, July 26, to reason with India and Pakistan to defuse the tension.
Solana met Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha, National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra, and Deputy Foreign Minister Omar Abdullah.
Solana left India for Pakistan to meet Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Foreign Minister Imamul Haq in an EU bid to normalise the Indo-Pak situation.
Solana endorsed the Indian view that terrorism has not ended in India-administered Kashmir. Solana said terrorist activity “has diminished, but it still exists”. India says trained terrorists infiltrate India-administered Kashmir from the Pakistan side.
Pakistan says what is happening in India is not Pakistan-inspired terrorism, but national independence struggle waged by the Kashmiri people.
However, following a pledge by President Musharraf to American Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, infiltration had decreased considerably, although Indian officials complain that the infiltration has begun to grow over the last couple of weeks.
A massacre of 28 Hindus in Jammu two weeks ago has lent credence to Indian claims that infiltration from Pakistani side has not stopped. The Pakistani claim is that the massacre was the handiwork of India’s homegrown terrorists.
There is some acceptance in India that Musharraf, who is trying to defeat terrorism in Pakistan, may not be able to fully contain terrorism on the Indian territory.
Pakistan argues that if 700,000 Indian troops massed on the LoC cannot nab infiltrators, it would not be realistic to expect Pakistan to do it with a far smaller human resource. Pakistan has proposed international patrolling, which India has rejected.
Likewise, India’s offer of joint patrolling of the LoC has been rejected by Pakistan.
In the series of high-level visits to the Subcontinent is U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s brief tour of India. He would be going to Pakistan Sunday, July 28, in the afternoon. Powell, too, has said that infiltration has come down but terrorism continues in Kashmir. This will be Powell’s third tour of the area since October.
India has been asking foreign dignitaries to pressurise Pakistan to stop infiltration. On the other hand, Pakistan says it has done its bit to control terrorism. Now it is India’s turn to open a dialogue on Kashmir as promised to Western governments.
For both Powell and Solana, the visits to India and Pakistan would be difficult as none of the two are prepared to change their old stance.
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