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Indo-Pak peace initiative runs into trouble
George Iype in New Delhi
Two months after India and Pakistan sought peace by setting up eight working groups to normalise bilateral relations, a fresh spurt in hostilities between the two South Asian neighbours seems to be in the offing.
India says it is not ready for any joint working group on Jammu and Kashmir, despite
intense pressure from Pakistan.
"India is ready to discuss threadbare the crucial issue of peace and security and Jammu and Kashmir at the level
of foreign secretaries, but not through any working groups," a senior official at the ministry of external affairs told Rediff On The NeT.
Pakistan, he said, is mounting considerable pressure on India to set up a formal working group on Kashmir,
arguing that the foreign secretaries, through a joint statement two months ago, had committed to constitute such
groups on eight areas of concern.
"But India strictly abides by the letter and spirit of the statement which clearly says that matters of peace and
security and Jammu and Kashmir will be dealt with only at the level of foreign secretaries," the official said.
India and Pakistan resumed foreign secretary-level talks in March in New Delhi and later in June in
Islamabad after a break of more than three years. Salman Haider, the then foreign Indian secretary, and Pakistan
Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmed had identified eight "outstanding issues of concern to both sides."
The eight issues were peace and security, Jammu and Kashmir, Siachen, the Wullar barrage project and Tulbul
navigation project, Sir Creek, terrorism and drug trafficking, economic and commercial co-operation and
promotion of friendly exchanges in various fields.
Among these, peace and security and Jammu and Kashmir were given top priority and they were to be dealt
with at the foreign secretary-level who would also co-ordinate and monitor joint working groups on the six
remaining issues.
But India is embarrassed at the manner in which Pakistan has been announcing to the world that the Kashmir issue is
central to the success of the Indo-Pakistan dialogue and therefore it wants a joint working group to be
constituted on Jammu and Kashmir.
India feels there are a number of other confidence building measures which need to be highlighted to
improve the relations between the two countries. One of these was the release of 194 Indian fishermen and 25
boats detained in Pakistan and 195 Pakistani fishermen and 26 boats held in India.
Pakistan diplomats in New Delhi are learnt to have told Indian foreign office mandarins that India has been
avoiding any negotiations on Kashmir. But India has told them that Pakistan is reluctant to discuss terrorism,
trade and commerce without bringing up the Kashmir issue.
Analysts fear these uncompromising postures on the vexed Kashmir issue will mar future bilateral talks.
They say both Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral and his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharief are under
considerable pressure from various political parties to take a tough line on the Kashmir issue. The alleged
deployment of the Prithvi missile by India and the Hatf 111 missile by Pakistan has been used by critics in both countries to build up opinion against the continuing bilateral dialogue.
These issues will be taken up at the next round of foreign secretary-level talks to be held in New Delhi in September.
MEA sources said India will strongly object to setting up any working group on Jammu and Kashmir as it feels
this crucial issue should be left to the foreign secretaries with a definite time frame.
At the next meeting, India will stick to Prime Minister Gujral's slated position that "Kashmir is
non-negotiable." The other areas high on India's agenda are cross-border terrorism and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.
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