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| Sunday, 27 October 2002 |
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Opposition reports progress in Kashmir impasse NEW DELHI, Saturday (Reuters) India's main opposition Congress party reported progress on Friday in deadlocked talks on a state coalition in revolt-wracked Indian Kashmir. An election ended this month with a hung assembly in the Jammu and Kashmir state, at the centre of a military standoff between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan. The latest separatist violence in the state has left at least 11 dead. Congress and the Kashmir-based People's Democratic Party (PDP) have been trying to hammer out a coalition for two weeks but cannot agree on who should lead it. "There has been significant achievement on the common minimum programme to run the government. We discussed a whole length of issues regarding Jammu and Kashmir," said senior Congress leader Arjun Singh after meeting PDP leaders. Negotiations almost broke down this week but Congress President Sonia Gandhi invited PDP leader Mufti Mohammad Syed to New Delhi for talks. Singh said the two leaders would decide on Saturday who would take the chief minister's job. Newspapers say the parties may rotate the leadership. The PDP campaigned on a platform calling for groundbreaking talks with separatists to end a 13-year revolt in overwhelmingly Hindu India's only Muslim majority state. It made a strong electoral debut, winning 16 seats in the 87-member assembly -- all in the mainly Muslim Kashmir Valley, the separatist heartland. Congress has 20 seats. PEACE TALKS The PDP says it should lead the coalition because it represents the Kashmir Valley, the area worst hit by violence. Congress, which also advocates peace talks, says it should head the government because it is the assembly's largest single group after the routed National Conference, which ruled the region for decades. The polls raised hopes of an end to a revolt which officials say has claimed more than 35,000 lives. India accuses Pakistan of arming, training and sending Islamic militants to Kashmir. Pakistan denies the charge and says it only provides rebels with moral support. India has fought two of its three wars with Pakistan over the Himalayan region and was hoping the election would endorse its rule over Kashmir. New Delhi turned the poll into a test of a Pakistan's commitment to stem the flow of separatists across the border, an issue that took the neighbours close to war in June. The revolt claimed more lives in the past 24 hours. Police said militants opened fire on Friday at a taxi in Kashmir's Baramulla district, killing one passenger and seriously wounding two others. Rebels also attacked an army camp in the city of Srinagar, killing one soldier. Al-Badr, a banned Pakistan-based militant group, claimed responsibility for the attack. Elsewhere in the region, six militants, one policeman and two civilians died in separate shootouts in past 24-hours. |
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