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Dump Pakistan and we can talk, PM tells J&K militants

Indicating that militant outfits in Jammu and Kashmir should not be swayed by Pakistan, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Sunday said his government was prepared for talks with them but the ultras have to take an independent decision on it.

"We are ready for talks and we want to resolve the Kashmir issue. But the militants have to take a decision of their own," Vajpayee told reporters in New Delhi.

India has squarely blamed Pakistan for sabotaging the peace process initiated by it with the Hizbul Mujahideen, which called off its ceasefire on Aug 8.

Condemning Sunday's blasts on the Srinagar-Jammu highway that killed six Border Security Force personnel, the prime minister said the militants were 'disappointed and dejected' as they had failed to muster any support from the international community.

Vajpayee said differences existed among the rank and files of the militant groups but 'we are hopeful that the sections of militants who want peace would be able to convince other sections about holding talks'.

However, the Hizb's supreme commander Syed Salahuddin struck an aggressive note saying the outfit could again declare a ceasefire provided India agrees to tripartite talks with Pakistan on the Kashmir problem.

He said the truce was called off only because of India's 'intransigent'. Salahuddin said the United States must persuade India to accept that Kashmir is a tripartite issue.

"India should demonstrate flexibility in responding to the basic reality that discussions will only be for the ultimate resolution of the Kashmir problem," he said in Islamabad.

Salahuddin said, "the gun is only to bring India to the (negotiating) table. We believe that the ultimate solution will on the table."

Reacting to the US holding the Hizb responsible for the collapse of the ceasefire, he said the US' opinion that the outfit had not given enough time for the truce was not correct.

Salahuddin slammed the US and other Western countries for their 'biased' approach towards the Kashmir issue saying the West had failed to exert pressure on India to settle the problem.

He said another war between Pakistan and India over Kashmir would be the 'most catastrophic and detrimental' to world peace, especially in South Asia.

Meanwhile, the militant outfit's official interlocutor Fazal Haq Qureshi said in New Delhi that 'the process of talks has been delayed, not derailed'.

"The process (talks) has been delayed possibly but it will resume and this time with greater weight and force," Qureshi told Doordarshan news.

Scotching all speculations that the talks process had been 'derailed', Qureshi said, "if the trend of violence in the valley were to continue at the present rate, then there would only be graveyards and nothing else."

Qureshi said, "if the militants continue to be backed by Pakistan, there would only be death and destruction in the valley."

PTI

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