Pakistani President Offers "Friendship" to Indian PM

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, January 06, 2002

Pakistani President Offers "Friendship" to Indian PM

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf shook the hand of Indian Prime Minister Atal Vajpayee at a summit of South Asian leaders Saturday in a surprising gesture of "sincere friendship" that he offered to the Indian leader.

Musharraf offered to shake hands with the Indian prime minister after making a speech at the opening ceremony of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation in a show of goodwill to defuse the ongoing tension between India and Pakistan, which erupted after a terrorist attack on Indian parliament last month.

"I extend a hand of genuine and sincere friendship to Prime Minister Vajpayee," Musharraf said, adding that "let us together commence a journey of peace, harmony and progress in South Asia."

The Pakistani government is "ready to engage in sustained dialogue with India at all times and all levels," Musharraf said.

"We strongly condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations," he said. "We abhor violence."

Tension has heightened between India and Pakistan as the two countries have kept their armies on high alert since last month's terrorist attack on the Indian parliament.

India has accused Pakistan of backing Islamic militants in Kashmir that are allegedly responsible for the parliament attack. Pakistan has denied its support for terrorism and asking India to produce convincing evidence for joint investigation into the December 13 bomb attack.

India and Pakistan have announced traffic sanctions against each other by severing air, train and bus services and slashed their embassy staffs in each other's country since the December 13 attack that killed 14 people.

Exchanging Heavy Fire in Kashmir

Indian and Pakistani troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir exchanged heavy mortar and artillery fire Saturday, even as leaders of the two countries shook hands in Nepal.

The shelling along the LoC in the Poonch sector Saturday began before the opening of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in Nepalese capital Kathmandu, according to an online news service.

Defense sources said that Pakistan started shelling around 10 a.m. and that it was one of the heaviest bouts of firing witnessed in this sector. Pakistani soldiers started pounding Durga post, Nakarkote and Gupur areas. Indian troops retaliated in kind, the sources said.

"The firing was so heavy that it was difficult to assess or estimate losses on either side," an army officer said, "We are monitoring the situation."

He said Pakistan had fired almost 400 shells along the Poonch sector. "This is a very high quantity of fire on the LoC. This is unprecedented and heavy."

Sources said Pakistan started the firing provoking India to retaliate.

This is not the first time that the Pakistani Army has resorted to unprovoked firing.

It has fired on Indian positions In Kashmir whenever there is asummit of this nature.

It happened in 1998 when Prime Ministers Inder Kumar Gujral and Nawaz Sharif were in Colombo for the SAARC Summit.

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