'Pak. will not raise Kashmir at SAARC meet'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 16. The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, today suggested that India had arrived at a broad `framework' with Pakistan to continue the dialogue and sought to put an end to doubts over the outcome of last month's Agra summit.

Replying to a discussion in the Rajya Sabha over his statement on the summit, he said the talks would be carried forward with an accent on improving relations and cooperation and to ``untangle knots and not tie new ones''.

One of the positive outcomes from the summit was the assurance that Pakistan would refrain from raising the Kashmir issue in international conferences, including SAARC. When the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries met this month at Colombo, Pakistan had kept its word, he said and hoped this trend would continue.

Mr. Vajpayee elaborated various facets of the summit, sprinkling his 40-minute speech with witty observations through which he answered critics. He took the wind out of the Opposition's sails when he said he would prefer to adopt as his own the suggestion of the Leader of the Opposition on Indo-Pak. relations.

Mr. Vajpayee said Jammu and Kashmir was an indivisible part of India and ruled out another partition on religious lines.

His Government prepared for the Agra summit just as it had for Lahore but things changed in Islamabad, and New Delhi had to deal with a power which was not willing to accept the Lahore Declaration and which adopted an ambivalent stand towards the Shimla pact. He said there was a ``vacuum and crisis of trust'' and the Agra summit was aimed at renewing the link which snapped after Kargil.

On the charge that India had insisted on Pakistan putting an end to cross-border terrorism, he said the ceasefire had brought about a change in Jammu and Kashmir. But the terrorist groups did not respond to the ceasefire.

Mr. Vajpayee once again rejected Gen. Musharraf's terming of terrorist acts as `jehad' and warned that terrorism would lead to problems in Pakistan. Terrorism was a `double-edged weapon' which could not solve problems.

Mr. Vajpayee said that during the long talk with Gen. Musharraf, he poured out all that he had accumulated over the last 40 years on Jammu and Kashmir, a journey that began with erstwhile Jana Sangh leader, Syama Prasad Mookerjee.

Disagreeing with the Opposition charge that India accorded legitimacy to Gen. Musharraf by inviting him, Mr. Vajpayee said the latter had assumed all powers before arriving here.

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