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Pakistan violated Kashmir bus agreement
NEW DELHI - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accused Pakistan on Tuesday of violating a bilateral travel agreement on the newly launched trans-Kashmir bus service. Singh said Pakistan breached the pact earlier this month by allowing Kashmiri separatists to travel beyond Pakistan-administered Kashmir to Islamabad where they held talks with President Pervez Musharraf.People who travel on the bus service which started April 7 can only visit the divided zones of Kashmir under the agreement between the nuclear-armed rivals that was seen as a major achievement of their slow-moving peace process. Pakistan's decision to "invite them to visit Islamabad and other cities in Pakistan violated an understanding on the procedures reached between the two countries for running the bus service," Singh said.
The separatists, most of whom belonged to the separatist alliance, Hurriyat, said on their return in mid-June that they hoped their visit would help them become a formal part of the peace process between the South Asian neighbours. On Monday, New Delhi rejected a demand by Hurriyat to be included in the dialogue process but said it could give its suggestions for solving the Kashmir issue. "There is no question of involving Hurriyat in the India-Pakistan talks" but it can give its suggestions for settling the Kashmir issue, junior home minister Sriprakash Jaiswal was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India. Singh also rejected a proposal by Musharraf that the international community be made a "guarantor" of a resolution of the dispute over Kashmir. "We have ruled out any role for a third party -- either through intervention or as guarantor or as mediators -- in any form," he said.
Posted by: Steve White 2005-06-22 |
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