The Hindu : International / India & World : Threats to bus uncalled for, says Pakistan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 05, 2005

International

International - India & World

Threats to bus uncalled for, says Pakistan

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

MOVING AHEAD: Newly built Srinagar-Muzaffarabad buses on their way to the terminal at Chakoti, situated along the Line of Control, on Monday. -- AP

ISLAMABAD, APRIL 4. Pakistan has said that the threats to the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service by certain groups in Jammu and Kashmir were "uncalled for" as only "genuine Kashmiris" would be travelling on the inaugural run on April 7.

"We see the Kashmir bus service as a significant confidence-building measure (CBM), specific to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and a measure to alleviate the sufferings of the Kashmiris," the Foreign Office spokesman, Jalil Abbas Jilani, told the media at the weekly briefing.

Responding to questions about the threats by certain organisations to the bus service, he maintained that there was no threat to the bus service, within the territory of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), which he described as one of the "most peaceful areas, with a very low crime rate."

"Genuine Kashmiris"

"We hope that since the travellers are genuine Kashmiris who want to meet their loved ones in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) no harm is done to them. I would like to go further than that to say that such threats are uncalled for and are not required."

Mr. Jilani termed the bus service as "the first step" and hoped that "it would ultimately lead to the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir issue and help improve the human rights situation."

Though a number of CBMs have been implemented to normalise the India-Pakistan ties, the bus was the first CBM for the Kashmiris, he said.

On the list of Kashmiri leaders from Kashmir, who have been denied permission by Pakistan, he said, the list exchanged between the two sides, did not include those names. He said the Indian authorities gave Pakistan the names when the list was finalised.

Asked about the views of the ruling PML-Q that clinging to the U.N. resolutions on Kashmir would be a "hypocrisy," Mr. Jilani said it considered the resolutions "sacrosanct" but was willing to show "flexibility" without "compromising on the basics."

"We must take realities into consideration and give up this politics of hypocrisy and put an end to rhetoric. Six decades have passed and the two sides have not moved in inch on the core issue of Kashmir," the secretary-general of the PML-Q, Mushahid Hussain, was quoted as saying in The News today.

Mr. Jilani said: "I would like to reiterate that the basic stand of Pakistan is premised on the U.N. Security Council resolutions. The resolutions, we have to understand, have a certain sanctity attached to them.

"[The] UNSC resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir are ... kind of resolutions, which were accepted by India, Pakistan and by people of Jammu and Kashmir and also endorsed by world community. In other words, no country can get out of those resolutions," he said. However, Pakistan was ready to demonstrate flexibility to discuss "other means" to resolve the Kashmir issue with the involvement of the people.

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