The Hindu : `Blackwill remarks cleared by Washington'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 26, 2002

International

International

`Blackwill remarks cleared by Washington'

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD SEPT. 25 . The United States has reportedly sent a ``strong'' message to the Musharraf Government on ``restoration of full democracy'' and its expectations from Islamabad to stop ``infiltration'' across the Line of Control (LoC).

All the major dailies of Pakistan have carried extensive reports on the two issues that reportedly figured at the meeting between the Pakistan Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Inam-ul-Haq and the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, in Washington on Monday.

Daily Times claimed that the recent remarks made by the U.S. Ambassador in New Delhi, Robert Blackwill, about the spurt in infiltration across the LoC since the announcement of elections to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly were ``duly cleared'' by Washington.

Gen. Powell and the National Security Adviser to the U.S. President, Condaleezza Rice, at their meetings with Mr. Haq conveyed that "infiltration across the LoC must stop, as there were continuing and disturbing reports that after a hiatus, it had been resumed, though not necessarily on the old scale,'' the paper said The State Department had taken a "dim view'' of the Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aziz Ahmed Khan's expression of "displeasure'' with Mr. Blackwill's remarks in New Delhi and that infiltration across the LoC had gone up in the last two months.

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