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Pakistan offers border truce & asks India to resume talks

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December 3, 2000 

ISLAMABAD--(AP) - Pakistan offered a truce Saturday to Indian soldiers along the disputed Kashmir border where the two armies routinely wage bitter crossborder gunfights.

The offer made by Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Inamul Haq follows a unilateral ceasefire offer by India to militant Kashmiris waging a bitter independence insurgency in Indian-ruled Kashmir.

Effective immediately, Haq said Pakistani troops deployed along the disputed border "will observe maximum restrain."

He called on India to reciprocate. The two armies that face off along the Kashmir frontier daily wage bitter gunbattles. Both sides claims the other fires the first shot.

In Indian Kashmir, Major B. Shahne, a spokesman for the Indian army, said Haq's offer comes amid reduced firing along the disputed border

"He (Pakistan foreign secretary) is really reflecting only what has happened on the ground. We welcome it. So far things seem to be working out," said Shahne. "It is the militants who now have to be sorted out. Once their ingress stops, things will be quieter."

Dozens of villages on both sides of the border have been abandoned by residents frustrated by the relentless crossborder dueling of the enemy armies. Scores of civilians on both sides of the border have been killed in the crossfire.

Both India and Pakistan lay claim to a united Kashmir, that was divided between South Asia's two uneasy neighbors after the subcontinent gained its independence from Britain in 1947.

Pakistan and India have fought two wars over Kashmir and last summer they waged a bitter border battle that threatened to escalate into an all-out conflagration.

Nearly 11 years ago militants launched an independence uprising in Indian-ruled Kashmir, demanding either outright independence or union with Islamic Pakistan.

Jammu and Kashmir is Hindu India's only Muslim majority state.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training militant secessionists, a charge Pakistan denies, saying its support is political and moral.

Last month India declared a unilateral ceasefire with militants to continue throughout the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which ends in late December.

Since the ceasefire began nearly one week ago, Indian Kashmir's minority Hindu population has been targetted by attacks believed to have been carried out by secessionist rebels.

On Friday four sleeping Hindu children became the latest victims in India's troubled state.

Some unidentified gunmen barged into the home of Gian Chand in a remote mountainous village of Indian Kashmir on Friday night and shot and killed four children, between 3 and 15 years old, police said. Other details were not immediately available.

The attack was the third on minority Hindus in Indian Kashmir since India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee halted all military operations against separatist groups last Tuesday.

Nineteen people have been killed in apparent militant attacks since the cease-fire went into effect.

No one claimed responsibility for the latest attack in Sajru, a remote village in Udhampur district, 175 kilometers (110 miles) north of Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu-Kashmir state.

Meanwhile, Prof. Abdul Ghani Bhat, leader of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference -- an alliance of 23 Kashmiri separatist groups -- flew into New Delhi on Saturday apparently to hold talks with India.

Bhat refused to give details of the prospective talks, including whether they would be direct or through a mediator.

"Let us not say anything before it happens," Bhat told The Associated Press before leaving Srinagar in Indian Kashmir for the Indian capital.

The political wing has agreed to hold separate peace talks with India. The militants, meanwhile, have demanded three-way talks that would include India, Kashmiri militants and Pakistan.

Haq dismissed Indian allegations that Pakistan controls the militants and said Islamabad was ready for immediate talks with New Delhi.

"Pakistan is prepared to enter into a meaningful dialogue with India," he said.

He said talks with the militants have to include Pakistan and should be accompanied by a reduction of Indian troops and an end to human rights abuses.

"We are testing Indian claims of ceasefire," Haq said. "We want to open talks with India and resolve the Kashmir dispute peacefully ... But the talks should be unconditional."