'Will it be a re-run of Agra?'

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, SEPT. 5. India has conveyed its dismay to the military establishment here over the spate of contentious statements in recent days and wanted to know if Islamabad intended to re-run the course of Agra at the scheduled meeting between the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, in New York on September 25.

The Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan, Mr. V.K. Nambiar, called on the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Mr. Inam-Ul Haq, this evening and expressed concern over statements emanating from various sources in the military government. Implied in the diplomatic message of Mr. Nambiar was the hint that New Delhi might be left with little option but to call off the New York meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly if Pakistan persisted with provocative statements.

The immediate provocation for the Indian action could be the statement made by the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdul Sattar, at the Durban meet on racism where he accused India of denigrating the struggle in Kashmir as terrorism and associating terrorism with Islam.

Upset over denial

India also appears to be upset over the point-blank denial by the Musharraf regime that it gave any commitment not to raise the Kashmir issue at multilateral forums. Pakistan had questioned the statement made by the Prime Minister in the Rajya Sabha on August 16 that a broad framework for future dialogue with Islamabad had been worked out.

In the course of the meeting the Pakistan Foreign Secretary was quick to assure Mr. Nambiar that Islamabad was looking forward to the meeting between the two leaders to carry forward the process of dialogue. He told Mr. Nambiar that while Pakistan wished to discuss all the issues with India, Kashmir would have to be the focus of the dialogue.

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