Tensions along LoC subsides after PM's chat with Sharief

Pakistan's decision to aggravate tensions with India by continuing the firing along the Line of Control is said to have arisen from Islamabad's failure to force New Delhi to agree to set up a working group on Kashmir and to focus on certain confidence building measures during the bilateral talks.

The foreign secretary-level talks between the two neighbours last month brought no tangible results. And the much-publicised dialogue between Prime Ministers Inder Kumar Gujral and Nawaz Sharief in New York last week turned out to be a lacklustre affair.

The only decision of consequence to emerge from the New York summit was the agreement by both premiers that they would instruct their Director Generals of Military Operations to stop the firing along the LoC in an effort to de-escalate tension.

Defence ministry sources said Gujral's order reached the DGMO the next day. "But it now transpires that the DGMO in Pakistan did not receive any instructions from the Sharief government," a senior defence ministry official said. "We take this as the main reason for the unprovoked artillery firing by Pakistani troops," he added.

Gujral rang Sharief on Wednesday night, reminded him of their agreement in New York and urged him to instruct their respective military officials to work out the modalities to ensure peace along the border. He told his Pakistani counterpart that India's peaceful nature should not be construed as a sign of weakness.

The premier's conversation with Sharief is said to have had immediate effect. Defence officials said the Indian DGMO in Kashmir received an unscheduled call on Thursday. Tuesday is the day both DGMOs usually speak to each other. The two generals discussed ways and means of ending the conflict along the LoC. They also discussed the Gujral-Sharief summit's decision to set up hotlines between army commanders in Kashmir to avoid any recurrance of the firing.

An external affairs ministry spokesperson said on Friday that the situation along the LoC had improved after the prime ministers spoke to each other. "Pakistan's motive for the unprovoked firing is to internationalise the Kashmir issue," he said.

However, he ruled out the possibility of the current tension resulting in a war between the two countries. "India expects the next round of foreign secretary-level talks to result in some forward movement towards peace," the diplomat told Rediff On The NeT. India, on its part, he added, will continue efforts at normalising relations with Pakistan.

Indian diplomats hope that Gujral will keep the bilateral dialogue on track by suggesting a new set of confidence building measures that involve commerce and trade when he meets Sharief again later this month and in November. Both premiers will meet at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Edinburgh, Scotland, in late October. They will meet again at Dhaka next month at a three-nation summit on trade convened by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheik Hasina Wajed.

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