|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 25 August 2002 |
 |
|
 |
World |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
US peace envoy due in Pakistan after bombing claim By David Brunnstrom and Terry Friel ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI, Aug 24 (Reuters) - A top U.S. diplomat was due to take a new South Asia peace mission to Islamabad on Saturday after Pakistan ratcheted up tensions with nuclear rival India by accusing it of an air attack in disputed Kashmir. India denied the claim as U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage met top officials in New Delhi on Friday. "This is a big lie," Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes told reporters in the Indian capital. Pakistani military spokesman Major-General Rashid Qureshi said earlier in Islamabad India had launched a ground assault on a mountain post at Gultari in the north of the disputed Himalayan region on Thursday night and suffered heavy casualties. "The Indians in their frustration resorted to a highly escalatory act by bombing the area using the Indian air force," he said, adding that there were no Pakistani casualties. Speaking to reporters in the Indian capital, Armitage said he could not comment specifically on the Pakistani air strike claim. "There has been too much violence as a general matter and we'll do whatever we can to reduce the violence," he said. India's last major air strikes against Pakistani forces were during the 1999 confrontation in Kashmir's Kargil region that almost plunged the two countries into their fourth war. There was no independent confirmation of either claim but each side accused the other of undermining Armitage's visit. "Whenever there is a high-profile visit to the subcontinent...the Indian government has got into the habit of either going into escalation or stage-managing an incident," Qureshi said. The row comes during an election campaign for a new assembly in India's Jammu and Kashmir state that New Delhi hopes will underline the legitimacy of its rule but fears Pakistan and Islamic separatists will try to derail. Pakistan has dismissed the planned election as "farcical". U.S. FEARS ELECTION VIOLENCE Armitage told reporters the United States wanted to see a free and fair election, but was concerned about the possibility of violence. He said this was an issue he would discuss in Pakistan, where he is due to meet military ruler General Pervez Musharraf after talks with Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Inam-ul-Haq. India and Pakistan have massed a million men along their border since a December attack on the Indian parliament which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based guerrillas. Tension rose again in May and June this year, and the two sides appeared on the brink of wider conflict. But incidents of artillery and small arms fire across the Line of Control have fallen off dramatically since then. Even so, Indian police said eight people, including three civilians, had been killed in separate clashes in Indian Kashmir over the past 24 hours. The United States has led international efforts to push India and Pakistan to talk peace, but analysts say it cannot push Musharraf too hard because it needs his support for the war against terror and the hunt for Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. U.S. President George Bush praised Musharraf on Thursday as a stalwart ally and made it clear Washington would stand by him, just hours after the general announced constitutional changes critics say will entrench the role of the military in government after Pakistan's own elections on October 10. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training Islamic militants fighting its rule in Jammu and Kashmir, the mainly Hindu nation's only Muslim-majority state. Pakistan denies the charge. India controls just under half of Kashmir, Pakistan about a third and China the rest. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
