India Sees No Immediate Peace Talks With Pakistan
July 25, 1999 - 0:0
NEW DELHI -- Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee virtually ruled out peace talks with Pakistan while Indian soldiers fought Islamic guerrillas in India-controlled Kashmir, a newspaper report said Saturday. "It is difficult to say when the talks will be held," the Statesman newspaper quoted Vajpayee as saying on Friday. There are several steps Pakistan will have to take to create an atmosphere of trust, Vajpayee said.
He didn't identify these steps on Friday. But in a telephone conversation with U.S. President Bill Clinton earlier in the week, Vajpayee said all intruders must be withdrawn from Indian territory and Pakistan must halt "cross border terrorism" in Kashmir. India accuses Pakistan of training and arming Islamic militants fighting a separatist war in Kashmir since 1989, a charge Pakistan denies.
Pakistan says it provides only moral and diplomatic support to the guerrillas. India and Pakistan - the world's newest nuclear powers - claim all of Kashmir and have fought two wars over its control since they won independence from Britain in 1947. A meaningful dialogue between the two sides is unlikely before a new government assumes office in New Delhi in October. Voting for the Indian parliamentary elections is scheduled for September. On Friday, Vajpayee rejected the Indian opposition charge that there was intelligence failure in detecting intrusion by hundreds of armed guerrillas into Indian territory.
" There was no failure," he said. However, nearly 800 intruders moved undetected nearly seven kilometers (four miles) deep into Indian territory in Kashmir and occupied mountaintop positions which the Indian soldiers had vacated at the start of winter last September. India says the infiltrators were mostly Pakistani soldiers. But Pakistan says its soldiers were not fighting in Kashmir and the intruders were Kashmiri rebels.
The intruders attacked the Indian forces when they tried to get back to their positions after the snow began melting in May. India responded with massive airstrikes and ground attacks, raising the specter of a full-blown war with Pakistan. On Saturday, Indian soldiers moved closer to two remaining pockets of Islamic guerrillas near the cease-fire line that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. After ten weeks of latest fighting, India has evicted intruders from most mountaintop positions in its territory.
Under pressure from the United States, Britain and other Western countries, Pakistan urged the rebel groups to withdraw and end the conflict, but a few groups of insurgents have clung to their positions. Fewer than 100 of the Islamic fighters who occupied mountainous parts of Indian-held Kashmir remain, the Indian military says. Indian attempts to clear these pockets have been hampered by thousands of plastic land mines and heavy rain.
(AP)
He didn't identify these steps on Friday. But in a telephone conversation with U.S. President Bill Clinton earlier in the week, Vajpayee said all intruders must be withdrawn from Indian territory and Pakistan must halt "cross border terrorism" in Kashmir. India accuses Pakistan of training and arming Islamic militants fighting a separatist war in Kashmir since 1989, a charge Pakistan denies.
Pakistan says it provides only moral and diplomatic support to the guerrillas. India and Pakistan - the world's newest nuclear powers - claim all of Kashmir and have fought two wars over its control since they won independence from Britain in 1947. A meaningful dialogue between the two sides is unlikely before a new government assumes office in New Delhi in October. Voting for the Indian parliamentary elections is scheduled for September. On Friday, Vajpayee rejected the Indian opposition charge that there was intelligence failure in detecting intrusion by hundreds of armed guerrillas into Indian territory.
" There was no failure," he said. However, nearly 800 intruders moved undetected nearly seven kilometers (four miles) deep into Indian territory in Kashmir and occupied mountaintop positions which the Indian soldiers had vacated at the start of winter last September. India says the infiltrators were mostly Pakistani soldiers. But Pakistan says its soldiers were not fighting in Kashmir and the intruders were Kashmiri rebels.
The intruders attacked the Indian forces when they tried to get back to their positions after the snow began melting in May. India responded with massive airstrikes and ground attacks, raising the specter of a full-blown war with Pakistan. On Saturday, Indian soldiers moved closer to two remaining pockets of Islamic guerrillas near the cease-fire line that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. After ten weeks of latest fighting, India has evicted intruders from most mountaintop positions in its territory.
Under pressure from the United States, Britain and other Western countries, Pakistan urged the rebel groups to withdraw and end the conflict, but a few groups of insurgents have clung to their positions. Fewer than 100 of the Islamic fighters who occupied mountainous parts of Indian-held Kashmir remain, the Indian military says. Indian attempts to clear these pockets have been hampered by thousands of plastic land mines and heavy rain.
(AP)