Ceasefire can be extended: PM

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI, DEC. 4. The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, today indicated that the Government was not averse to extending the current ceasefire beyond Ramzan provided Pakistan responded in a ``substantive'' manner. Noting that Pakistan had announced its intention to observe maximum restraint along the Line of Control, the Prime Minister observed that ``Islamabad's response has been good, but not substantive''.

Even as the Prime Minister was talking of the possibility of extension of ceasefire, reports came in of a suicide squad attack on a CRPF camp in Anantnag district and a landmine blast in Baramulla, leaving in all two killed and about 37 injured.

Mr. Vajpayee's made this observation while interacting with the mediapersons at the Navy Day function. Originally, the Prime Minister was to make a statement in the Lok Sabha; and this would have given some idea of the Government's response to Pakistan's announcement last Saturday. However, the Government's thinking remained unspelt out as the Lok Sabha proceedings got disrupted.

Jaswant statement likely

It is expected that the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, would make a statement on the situation in Kashmir tomorrow in Parliament. Since Parliament is in session, the Prime Minister was constrained not to say too much outside the House.

Nonetheless, when Mr. Vajpayee was asked what he expected Pakistan to do, he said, ``What they have to do, they know.'' By way of elaboration, he reiterated the Government's formulation that Pakistan needed to indicate the end of its support for cross-border terrorism.

The extension of ceasefire, according to the Prime Minister, would depend on the ground situation. ``We are looking for reciprocation,'' he indicated. Mr. Vajpayee's remarks summed up the collective sense among the senior Ministers that the requisite ``concrete'' response from Pakistan was still awaited.

Hurriyat hopeful

Meanwhile, two senior Hurriyat leaders, its current chairman, Prof. Abdul Gani Bhat, and a former chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, have been camping in the capital. Though there has been no contact, formal or informal, between the Hurriyat leaders and the officials, the possibility of such contact is not ruled out. For now, the officials are trying to deconstruct the utterances of the APHC leaders, here and in Srinagar, to see whether there was any, if at all, change in the organisation's stance.

Prof. Bhat and other Hurriyat leaders have reason to be happy with Pakistan's Saturday statement, as for the first time Islamabd has acknowledged the APHC as relevant to a resolution of the Kashmir issue. Prof. Bhat today said the Hurriyat was prepared to participate enthusiastically in any comprehensive peace process. However, the APHC chairman thinks that the Prime Minister has to follow up his Ramzan ceasefire initiative with ``much bigger steps so as to create an impression that the past has been buried and the future is being built on a firm solid base''. Mr. Bhat's expectation is the Government could take the next big step by releasing prisoners, allowing the Hurriyat leaders to travel to Pakistan, and to permit political activity freely in J&K.

Those officials who deal with Jammu and Kashmir are inclined to believe that the Centre would have no difficulty in constructively engaging the Hurriyat leaders provided they give indication of disengaging themselves from Pakistan. The Hurriyat leaders are expected to visit the Pakistani High Commissioner's residence tomorrow for an Iftar party.

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