Indian PM says no Pakistan talks until militant support ends
The peace process between India and Pakistan will not go forward until Islamabad ends its support for terrorist groups, said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
“This cannot go forward if Pakistan does not deal with terrorism firmly. What has Pakistan done to control terrorism?” Singh said late yesterday during a visit to the eastern city of Bhubaneswar.
India charges Pakistan of training and funding Islamic militants fighting in Kashmir. Pakistan denies the charge, but admits it offers the rebels moral and political support.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said the Islamic nation did not support militants operating inside India, including in Indian-controlled Kashmir, and that New Delhi has not provided any evidence to back its claims.
There are more than a dozen militant groups, most of them based in the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir, that are demanding independence from Hindu-majority India for Kashmir or its merger with Muslim-dominated Pakistan.
In January 2004, India and Pakistan launched a peace process aimed at ending their decades-old rivalry and dispute over Kashmir, claimed by both in its entirety. Pakistan agreed to crack down on militants who cross into India’s part of Kashmir and stage attacks.
“Both countries have a common obligation to ensure that terrorist elements are firmly dealt with,” Singh said when asked if the process could be jump-started when he attends the upcoming Non-Aligned Movement meeting in Havana, which Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf is also expected to attend.
The peace process has lumbered along – with bus services, easing of visa restrictions and improved trade ties marking the main signs of progress – but there has been little headway on Kashmir.
India postponed a round of peace talks in the aftermath of the July 11 train bombings in Mumbai, which killed more than 200 people and were blamed on Kashmiri militants.
Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam criticised Singh for the postponement, citing a 2005 agreement between Pakistan’s president and the Indian premier to not allow terrorist attacks to derail the peace process.
“What has happened to that commitment?” Aslam said in relation to Singh’s comments.
However, Singh said he was not against talking to Musharraf in Havana. “We can choose our friends, not our neighbours. But there should not be any problem in talking.”
