The Hindu : India's CBMs made under global pressure: Pak.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 12, 2003

International

International - India & World

India's CBMs made under global pressure: Pak.

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD Nov. 11 . Even as his Cabinet colleague and Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, was at his charming best in New Delhi, the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, surprised observers by launching a diatribe against India and maintained that the recent confidence building measures (CBMs) by Delhi were made under global pressure.

Addressing a specially convened press conference to brief on his just concluded tour of European Union countries, Mr. Kasuri was particularly harsh on the Indian proposal to run a bus service between Muzaffarabad and Srinagar.

"On the one hand India says that Pakistan is indulging in cross-border terrorism, on the other hand they are suggesting a bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad. Probably they want the terrorists to travel in style and comfort," he quipped.

Mr. Kasuri is an ardent advocate of normalisation of ties between India and Pakistan and was seen at times in the last one year in office at odds with his Foreign Office.

In the face of provocative statements from some of the functionaries in the Vajpayee Government, Mr. Kasuri had kept his cool and preferred not to join issues.

It is against this backdrop that his cutting at the press meet surprised many. Mr. Kasuri said India could not be serious about allegations of cross-border infiltration if it is offering the bus service across Kashmir, and went on to assert that it was impossible for the Pakistan forces to completely seal the Line of Control (LoC).

"All activity cannot be actually stopped. No country in the world can do that. How can Pakistan do that? You cannot seal a border as large as that," he argued. The only way of stopping the rebel flow was through dialogue between Pakistan and India on Kashmir, he said.

"The only guarantee for complete sealing of the border is that there should no incentive for people to cross the border... That can come through negotiations, dialogue with the Government of Pakistan to discuss and settle the outstanding issue of Jammu and Kashmir," he maintained.

He did pay compliments to the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, as a "man of peace" but at the same time hinted that he was stymied by hardliners.

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