The Hindu : Front Page : Pakistan stalling talks with separatists?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 08, 2004

Front Page

Front Page

Pakistan stalling talks with separatists?

By Our Staff Reporter

JAMMU, NOV. 7. The Ministry of Home Affairs has said that Pakistan is exerting pressure on the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference (Ansari group) not to resume dialogue with the Indian Government till it (Pakistan) is involved in the talks as a third party.

Assessing the stalled dialogue process with the separatists, a Home Ministry statement issued to the media here said: "The previous Government had held two rounds of talks at the level of the Deputy Prime Minister with the Hurriyat led by Maulana Abbas Ansari on January 22 and March 27, 2004.

So far [the] Hurriyat leaders have not come forward for talks as they have some genuine difficulties. There have been attacks on some of the leaders, their relatives and institutions/properties belonging to them. There are indications that Pakistan is exerting pressure on the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (Ansari group) leaders, particularly its acting president, Maulvi Umar Farooq (Mirwaiz) not to resume the dialogue with India till Pakistan is also included... in the talks as a third party." Recently, the Mirwaiz had a meeting with the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, in Amsterdam, where Gen. Musharraf made a halt on his way home from New York after the United Nations General Assembly session.

Taking note of Pakistan's failure to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure on its territory, it said: "Pakistan has been controlling the level of cross-border terrorism and infiltration emanating from its soil. While cross-border infiltration has come down compared to last year, Pakistan has not taken any concrete steps to dismantle the infrastructure on its territory as well as the offensive capabilities of [the] terrorist groups operating from its side. The communication infrastructure across the border and among militants within Jammu and Kashmir is intact. In other words, Pakistan continues to retain the capability to calibrate the levels of cross border terrorism and infiltration directed against India, while simultaneously retaining the deniability advantage to ward off international pressure."

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