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India to focus on cross-border terrorism

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

In a move designed to outsmart Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will agree to discuss Kashmir in the Agra summit's initial round, but insist that the discussion focus on stopping cross-border terrorism, a top official of the ministry of external affairs asserted on Tuesday.

"Prime Minister Vajpayee will agree that Kashmir be discussed first when the Agra summit begins but he will insist that the focus of the discussion should be stopping cross-border terrorism," a senior MEA official told rediff.com.

"We are aware that they (Pakistan) regard Kashmir as the central issue but for us any meaningful discussion on it is irrelevant unless the focus is on stopping cross-border terrorism, which has prevented any amicable solution all these years," he pointed out.

"It is foolish to expect that if some (Hurriyat) leaders meet the Pakistan president during a social meeting, they become a participant in the Indo-Pak dialogue (especially on Kashmir) which is a bilateral issue," he asserted.

He added that this has been categorically conveyed to Islamabad.

Asked to comment on the 'downsized' Pakistan delegation led by Musharraf, the official pointed out that 'it is their business'.

MEA spokeswoman Nirupama Rao confirmed that the Pakistan president is leading a 19-member delegation, including his foreign minister Abdul Sattar.

The latter is an old 'India hand' and considered to be a hawk in the Pakistani establishment.

However, Rao did not say who the other Pakistani delegation members are although she conceded that 'the list is with the MEA.'

Media reports from Islamabad had hinted that in what could be Musharraf's deliberate policy, the Pakistani delegation was being pruned down in order to facilitate its desire to narrow down the agenda for the summit to just the Kashmir issue.

The official, however, declined to comment on the composition of the Pakistan delegation and pointed out that 'let them do their job, we will stick to ours'.

The MEA spokeswoman said 'Pakistan's response has been positive' on the issue of the Director-General of Military Operations G S Sihota's visit to Islamabad to discuss with his counterpart ways to ease military tensions along the Line of Control and the Siachen glacier.

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

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