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Pakistan continues to be hostile toward India

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October 24, 2000 

SRINAGAR (AP) - India's defense minister said Monday there was no letup in Pakistan's support to cross-border terrorism in troubled Kashmir.

"There is no change. In fact, Pakistan's hostility toward India has increased," Defense Minister George Fernandes told reporters at the end of a two-day visit to the Kashmir valley.

India says it will resume peace talks with archrival Pakistan only after it stopped supporting cross-border terrorism.

Pakistan says it only provides moral and diplomatic support to the rebel groups fighting for Kashmir's secession from India since 1989.

The political dialogue between India and Pakistan was interrupted in May last year after a military confrontation in the Kargil sector of Kashmir.

On Monday, Fernandes said the infiltration of militants from the Pakistani side has increased in recent months.

A Jammu-Kashmir state government statement said 1,210 militants, 730 civilians and 645 government soldiers have been killed in Indian-controlled Kashmir this year.

Jammu-Kashmir is the only Muslim majority state in a predominantly Hindu India.

The minister accused Pakistan of sabotaging a peace initiative earlier this year that would have brought the representatives of the Indian government and a key militant group, Hezb-ul Mujahedeen, on the negotiating table.

The militant group called off its unilateral cease-fire within a week after India refused to include Pakistan in a tripartite dialogue.

India and Pakistan have fought two wars over control of Kashmir since they won independence from Britain in 1947. India controls two-thirds of Kashmir and Pakistan the rest.

Both claim Kashmir in its entirety.