Don't undermine ceasefire, Farooq tells Pak.

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV. 26. The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, today said despite the lukewarm response from militants, the State and the Centre were determined to go ahead with the unilateral ceasefire.

Dr. Abdullah, who was in the capital over the weekend, was involved in a series of meetings with the Union Home Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani, and the Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, to firm up strategy and modalities of the implementation of the ceasefire. He described the Prime Minister's offer as historic and said ``those trying to sabotage it would never be forgiven by the people or by history''.

The Chief Minister took a swipe at Pakistan and accused it of always trying to sabotage efforts to restore peace in the trouble-torn State. ``They have made a habit of trying to sabotage peace initiatives. I pray better sense prevails this time.'' He called on all the militant outfits to reciprocate the Centre's ``ceasefire in Ramzan''.

Dr. Abdullah said as far as the Government was concerned, combat operations would cease once the Ramzan moon was sighted, but at the same time he made it clear that the security forces would retaliate if Pakistan tried to use the opportunity to push in infiltrators or if the security forces were attacked.

Differences among militants

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, NOV. 26. There is a clear difference in the perception of the Kashmiri leaders from either side of the Line of Control (LoC) and Pakistan-based militant organisations on the ceasefire announcement made by the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee.

This was evident from the outcome of the first formal meeting of Kashmiri leaders on Saturday night at the residence of son of senior All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leader, Mr. Abdul Ghani Lone.

While Pakistan-based militant organisations have denounced the ceasefire as a ``gimmick'', the Kashmiri leaders believe it should not be rejected outright and efforts should be made to prevail upon the Indian Government to improve upon the offer.

The meeting of the Kashmiri leaders, held in connection with the wedding of Mr. Lone's son, discussed the situation arising out of the ceasefire. They are expected to meet once again on November 28 to take stock of the situation.

One of the leaders told The Hindu that in the perception of Kashmiri leaders, outright rejection of the ceasefire would not further their cause and could prove to be damaging, particularly from the viewpoint of support from the international community.

``What else can you expect the militant outfits to say? After all, they are faced with a gun-to-gun situation in Kashmir and cannot expected to give up their position so easily. It would require a great deal of confidence-building on the part of all concerned to bring them round,'' he said.

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