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No proposal to meet Musharraf, says Vajpayee
By J.P. Shukla
The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, receives garlands from Nepalese girls on his arrival at the Kathmandu airport on Thursday. At right is the Nepalese Prime Minister,Sher Bahadur Deuba. - Reuters
LUCKNOW, JAN. 3. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, said today that he had no proposal to meet the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, and that he did not feel that a war was inevitable with Pakistan in its fight against terrorism. If diplomatic efforts proved adequate to deter Pakistan from inciting cross-border terrorism, there would be no need for any alternatives, he told presspersons shortly before his departure for Kathmandu to attend the SAARC meeting.
However, he said, Pakistan's response was quite inadequate and India was not satisfied with its steps to contain terrorism in its territory.
India would like to know how many persons involved in terrorist activities had been arrested, who they were and what the charges against them were. How many persons linked to the terrorist attack on Parliament had been arrested?
Pakistan was bound by the U.N. Security Council resolutions which forbade countries from abetting terrorism. Pakistan had, however, not taken any step against terrorist organisations functioning from its soil, Mr. Vajpayee said. There were adequate indications that Pakistan was not prepared to shun terrorism, he said.
Replying to a specific question, the Prime Minister said there was no proposal before the country to dishonour the water treaty with Pakistan.
He, however, clarified that he had never mentioned a nuclear war with Pakistan in his speech at the Arya Pratinidhi Sammelan here on Wednesday. India's stand on the use of nuclear weapons had been made amply clear.
The country stood by its policy of no first use of nuclear arms in the event of a war. Nuclear weapons could never be used against countries having no such weapons. India was not in the arms race and its weapons were meant only for self-defence.
He said he looked forward to meeting the Presidents of the Maldives and Sri Lanka and the Prime Ministers of Bangladesh and Bhutan, to pick up the threads of cordial bilateral relationship.
Mr. Vajpayee said he would also take up the issue of attacks on Hindus with the Bangladesh Prime Minister, Begum Khaleda Zia. Bangladesh's attention had already been drawn to the issue and some steps had been taken. There would be further talks with Begum Zia in this regard, he said.
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