India cautious over Pak proposal to demilitarise LoC
Afp, New Delhi
India yesterday responded cautiously to Pakistan's suggestion that the rivals demilitarise disputed Kashmir to speed up relief efforts after last month's quake, which claimed 58,000 lives, saying the step could not be taken unilaterally. "It (the demilitarisation) can't be done unilaterally," Foreign Minister Natwar Singh told reporters in New Delhi, the Press Trust of India reported. "After all, they (Pakistan) are in occupation of our areas," he said referring to India's claim over all of the Himalayan region of Kashmir -- the root cause of tension between the nuclear-armed rivals. Singh was responding to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's remarks to Saudi newspaper Arab News at the weekend in which he said he was "for demilitarisation (in Kashmir). "If they (India) agree to that, we will too," Musharraf's spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan quoted him as saying. The minister made it clear that he has to study the Pakistan president's comments and the context in which they were made before offering any definite views. "Over-verbalising doesn't help. Every second day there is a statement from that side," he added, referring to Pakistan. Late Monday Indian Prime Minister Singh indicated the possibility of Pakistani involvement in Saturday's bomb blasts in New Delhi that claimed 62 lives. "We continue to be disturbed and dismayed at indications of the external linkages of terrorist groups with the October 29 bombing," Singh said in a telephone call initiated by Musharraf.
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