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Indian Raises Conditions on Talks with Pakistan
In reaction to Pakistan's announcement on exercising "maximum restraint" along the line of control in the disputed Kashmir, Indian leaders Sunday raised conditions on talks with Islamabad.
Home Minister L. K. Advani said Sunday, December 3, that his country would negotiate only when Pakistan ends proxy war and stops pushing militants into the Kashmir Valley, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI).
"We are watching Pakistan's reaction towards our ceasefire offer and evaluating it," Advani was quoted as saying in Ajmer, a city in the state of Rajasthan 390 kilometers southwest of here.
Defense Minister George Fernandes indicated today that India would resume dialogue with Pakistan only if the latter stopped sending terrorists to the country and "genuinely" ended firing from across the border.
"If there should be genuine stopping of firing from the other side, and they stopped the influx of terrorists, then I believe we should be going in a direction which will help both the people of Jammu and Kashmir and also perhaps enable us to sit and talk," the minister said in Bangalore, 2,060 kilometers south of here.
Meanwhile, president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party Bangaru Laxman expressed his welcome to the statement of Pakistan Foreign Secretary Inamul Haq, in which "he expressed his desire to hold talks with India".
India was ready to hold talks with Pakistan if it stops the terrorist activities on the border, Laxman said, adding almost all sections of the Indian society welcome the government decision to suspend combat operation in Kashmir during the holy month of Ramzan.
On Saturday, Islamabad announced a ceasefire along the line of control between the two neighbors and said its forces deployed along the border in Kashmir would observe maximum restraint.
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