Pakistan on Monday made it clear that the Line of Control cannot form the basis for a solution to the Kashmir issue and rejected as "absolutely baseless" India's charge that Islamabad was promoting jihadi violence in that country.
"The status quo has not resolved the Kashmir dispute... Any solution based on status quo is not acceptable," Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said in Islamabad.
She was asked about National Security Adviser M K Narayanan's contention that the LoC could form the basis of solution to the protracted Kashmir issue. Dismissing Narayanan's charge that there was a Pakistani connection to promoting jihadi violence in India, she said, "This is an absolutely baseless comment. We reject it."
Aslam said Pakistan itself is a victim of terrorism. "We are fighting terrorism and Pakistan contribution had been well recognised by the international community with one exception," she said without directly naming India.
On the Narayanan's comment that Pakistan was not serious in resolving the Kashmir issue and the proposals mooted by Islamabad were confusing, Aslam said Pakistan has been making "earnest efforts to find a permanent solution to Kashmir".
"President Pervez Musharraf is emphasising there is need for the out of box thinking to resolve Kashmir dispute that is acceptable to all the stake holders. With this view in mind, Pakistan forwarded proposals on self-governance, demilitarisation and joint management.
"India can also put forward ideas to Pakistan and Kashmiris," she said, adding New Delhi should engage "seriously" in the composite dialogue process.
"We have also emphasised that first and foremost India should engage seriously in the Composite Dialogue process in order to find an acceptable solution to the Kashmir dispute.
The spokesperson said Pakistan's proposals had generated "a great deal of interest" among Kashmiris and many leaders from both sides of LOC had supported them. Observing a "Pakistani connection" in promoting jehadi violence in India, Narayanan had, in an interview to a private television channel this weekend, said these elements used Bangkok and West Asia route to cross over.
"The emergence of Indian terror modules, the deliberate targeting of religious places... is worrying ... and these are attempts to create communal violence and divisions between the majority and minority communities," Narayanan said.
