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India’s Call Halting Action In Kashmir During Ramadan Rejected
contributions by Pratap Chakravarty
NEW DELHI & MUZAFFARABAD (AFP) - India will not launch combat operations against Muslim separatist groups in Kashmir during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee announced here Sunday.
Ramadan starts at the end of November.
"The holy month of Ramadan, during which Prophet Mohammed exhorted one and all to live in peace and harmony, is soon approaching.
"The government has, therefore, instructed [Indian] security forces not to initiate combat operations against the militants in Kashmir during this most pious month in the Islamic calendar," Vajpayee said.
"I hope that our gesture will be fully appreciated and all violence in the state and infiltration across the Line of Control ...will cease and peace will prevail," he said.
"We have continued our efforts to normalize the situation in the state and to hold talks with all those who are prepared for a dialogue," the prime minister said.
His unilateral ceasefire is the first such offer by New Delhi to Kashmir's groups since the hostilities between Indian security troops and Kashmiri fighters broke out in the Himalayan territory in a conflict which has claimed more than 34,000 lives since 1989.
"India has always stood for a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue. Events of the past two years have further underscored India's credentials for peace," Vajpayee said.
The prime minister did not name rival Pakistan, but said the international community was now aware of the forces behind the separatist violence in the disputed territory.
"The true complexion of the forces of terrorism and separatism, as also their growing isolation in the [Kashmir] state, are now clearer than ever before.
"The entire world now knows who is misusing the name of Islam to prolong the agony of the people of Kashmir," he said, adding the situation in the region was on the mend.
The prime minister warned India had proved "without a shadow of doubt that it has both the resolve and capability to defeat any attempt to transgress India's security or challenge our national unity and integrity."
He said Indians were heartened by the improvement in the situation in Kashmir and added that the people of Kashmir also longed for peace.
There was no immediate reaction from Kashmir's two-dozen groups to his offer.
Vajpayee said during his August 3rd trip to the Kashmir summer capital of Srinagar he had tried to underscore the need to resolving the dispute in the "spirit of humanity."
"Mine was a sincere appeal for cooperation to bring to an end the long trail of violence, which has claimed so many precious lives and inflicted untold misery on all sections of the state's population," he added.
Official sources said the decision was taken after a meeting of Vajpayee's Cabinet Committee on Security Affairs on Saturday.
A unilateral ceasefire offered on July 24th by Kashmir's frontline Hizbul Mujahedeen guerrilla group collapsed within 15 days after its Pakistan-based leadership demanded the inclusion of Pakistan in any peace talks on Kashmir.
In response to the Indian offer, a hardline Kashmir group Sunday rejected the offer for a truce during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
"The offer by the Indian prime minister is an eyewash and we reject it outright," Harkat Ul Mujahideen spokesman Amiruddin Mughal said in a statement.
Mughal said his group would accelerate their actions against Indian forces during the fasting month under its "Ramadan Operation."
Their fighters will target Indian troops, even if they do not attack, he added.
He said that had India sincerely wanted to resolve the Kashmir dispute peacefully it would have positively responded to the Hizbul Mujahideen ceasefire offer made in July.
"Given the previous record of the Indian government, the fresh offer on its part is also nothing but an attempt to deceive the Mujahideen," Mughal said.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and exporting Islamic fighters to Kashmir. Islamabad denies the charge but offers open moral and diplomatic support to what it describes as the Kashmiris' just struggle for self-rule.
The two South Asian neighbors have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since the subcontinent's independence from the British in 1947
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