Pak. depicting terrorism as peripheral issue: Sushma

NEW DELHI, AUG. 15. The Information and Broadcasting Minister, Ms. Sushma Swaraj, today said the Pakistan President, General Pervez Musharraf, wanted to put the issue of cross-border terrorism on the back-burner and maintained his rigid stand that Kashmir was the core issue between the two countries during the Agra summit. ``Pakistan is still trying to depict cross-border terrorism as the peripheral issue, but for India it is a matter of prime concern,'' Ms. Swaraj said at a seminar `Agra Summit and the two-nation theory' here. Gen. Musharraf was avoiding talks on cross-border terrorism and was only talking about the LoC, she said adding even at the summit he was playing with words.

Referring to the recent killings, including the attack on Amarnath pilgrims, she said, ``The magnitude of cross-border terrorism could be gauged from the fact that everyday innocent people are killed in Jammu and Kashmir.'' The Minister said India was prepared for a composite dialogue on all issues of differences, but Gen. Musharraf insisted on having one-to-one talks with the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee. Mr. Vajpayee told the Pakistan President that if he would call Kashmir a core issue, then he had to go into the core of the issue, which was the attack of Afghani raiders (Kabaliyan) in 1947, after which two-thirds area of Kashmir had gone with them, the Minister said.

- PTI

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