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Pakistan asks India to halt use of force in Kashmir

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February 5, 2001 

ISLAMABAD-- (AP) - Pakistan Sunday urged its uneasy neighbor India to announce a permanent end to hostilities with Kashmiri secessionists on its territory.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar called for a complete halt to Indian military operations in Indian Kashmir, where pro-Pakistan militants are waging a bitter and violent secessionist uprising.

"We want India to terminate all use of force, violence, human rights violations and its repression on Kashmiris," he told a news conference in the federal capital of Islamabad.

"It will help to reduce violence in Kashmir and lead to easing of tension between Pakistan and India," said Sattar as Pakistan prepares to celebrate a nationwide solidarity day Monday with those Kashmiris, who are fighting to end Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region.

Since 1989, Islamic guerrillas have been waging a bloody secessionist movement in Indian Kashmir for its merger with Islamic Pakistan or independence.

Last November, India announced a month-long unilateral ceasefire with militants in an attempt to end the violence in the troubled region. Since then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has twice extended the ceasefire.

Pakistan welcomed the truces, while militants rejected them. Pakistan also announced a truce along its borders where Indian and Pakistani soldiers routinely trade gunfire.

While Pakistan wants a cease fire, it wants it to be permanent, said Sattar.

"We don't know what is gained by extending the ceasefire on a monthly basis," he said.

He called for Kashmiri peace talks involving Pakistan, India and the Kashmiri militants. India has refused talks that include Pakistan demanding Islamabad first put an end to cross border incursions by militants. Islamabad says its support is limited to moral and political help.

Kashmir, a former princely state, is divided between Pakistan and India, two nuclear neighbors who claim the territory in its entirety.

They two nations have twice gone to war over Kashmir. They fought a third war over East Pakistan, now called Bangladesh.

"We need to move on the track which will lead to elimination of violence and opening talks is the way to reduce militancy," he said.

Tensions have eased slightly between India and Pakistan, said Sattar with the prime ministers of the two countries speaking on telephone last week. This was their first contact since the army took power in Pakistan in October 1999 throwing out the civilian government here.