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Indian prime minister and Pakistani leader speak on earthquake

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February 3, 2001 

NEW DELHI--(AP) - Disaster brought two rivals together Friday as India's prime minister and Pakistan's military ruler spoke by telephone about the earthquake that devastated the border state of Gujarat.

It was the first reported conversation between the leaders of two countries that have fought three wars in 47 years and tested nuclear weapons in 1998.

Pakistan's military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, called Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, "to convey his sympathy at the great loss of life caused by the earthquake in Gujarat," said Mohammed Bashir, an official in Vajpayee's office.

He said Vajpayee thanked Musharraf for two military planeloads of relief sent to Gujarat, where a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit Jan. 26, killing thousands.

"The prime minister assured the chief exeutive of India's continuning desire to build a good neighborly relationship with Pakistan," said Bashir.

Gen. Rashid Quereshi, spokesman for Pakistan's military government, said the telephone, about six minutes long, was a welcome sign.

"The Indian prime minister also afterward said they must maintain contact," Quereshi told The Associated Press in Islamabad, the Pakistan capital.

"I think it is a welcome sign that these two sides are talking," said Quereshi, who is the spokesman for Pakistan's military government. "I think it will lead to more contact."

Vajpayee has avoided speaking to Musharraf since the military leader came to power in an October 1999. The two countries battled in May-July 1999 in clashes that Vajpayee blamed on Musharraf as head of the Pakistan armed forces.

The earthquake also killed 18 people in Pakistan's Sindh province, on the other side of the border from Gujarat. Speaking of the upcoming call earlier in the day, Vajpayee had said, "Sorrow reduces when you share it."

"Maybe I'll talk to Musharraf tonight," Vajpayee had told an audience in New Delhi. "We might find some way out."

"Pakistan has helped us in our hour of need," Vajpayee said, making an appearance at the launch of a new weekly journal in Hindi and Urdu, the national languages of India and Pakistan, respectively.

Vajpayee also referred to remarks attributed to Musharraf last week by Pakistan's state-run news agency saying Musharraf had offered quake relief aid, but it was rejected.

"There was a bit of misunderstanding earlier," Vajpayee said. "We never said we would not accept their help."

Asked about the possibility of resuming the stalled dialogue between the two countries, Press Trust of India quoted Vajpayee as saying, "We have always favored talks for which the right atmosphere has to be created. Violence, killings and terrorism must stop and the climate should be such that fruitful and meaningful parleys can take place."

Musharraf has repeatedly offered talks anywhere, anytime over Kashmir, the Himalayan province that has sparked two of the three wars between the countries since their independence from Britain in 1947.

India accuses Musharraf of supporting, aiding and supplying Islamic militants who have been fighting since 1989 to separate the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir.

Musharraf has said he has no control over the militant groups based in Pakistan and does not aid them, but supports their cause.

Vajpayee has refused to speak to Musharraf because he blames the Pakistani general for instigating an incursion in early 1999 across the cease-fire line that divides Kashmir. Hundreds of combatants were killed before the intruders withdrew into Pakistan after former U.S. President Bill Clinton intervened with then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Vajpayee has said the incursion was planned by Musharraf, as head of Pakistan's armed forces, while the two prime ministers were holding talks in Lahore, Pakistan. A few months later, Musharraf overthrew Sharif in a coup.

Since then, the South Asian Association of Regional Countries has canceled two summit meetings because Vajpayee would not meet Musharraf, and the Indian prime minister avoided greeting the Pakistani leader at the United Nations Millennium Summit last year.