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Checking infiltration, Musharraf's litmus test: Advani
WASHINGTON, JAN. 28. A halt to infiltration of terrorists into Jammu and Kashmir and ending their training will be the ``litmus test'' by which India will judge whether the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, has abandoned the use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy, according to the Home Minister, L.K. Advani.
Mr. Advani said he cannot judge whether Gen. Musharraf has stopped training, arming and financing terrorists. ``But we can certainly see whether infiltration has stopped or not. That would be perceived, of course, over a period of time, not immediately,'' he said in an interview to Newsweek.
Mr. Advani, who was in the U.S. recently, said he had no objection when asked if India was agreeable to Gen. Musharraf handing over the wanted fugitive, Dawood Ibrahim, to the U.S. for trial. ``I have no objection. But, I do not think he would agree to that,'' Mr. Advani said and recalled Gen. Musharraf telling him in Agra in July last year that Ibrahim was not in Pakistan.
He also recounted a Pakistani High Commission official subsequently telling him that ``Gen. Musharraf was very upset when you made him speak a blatant untruth in the presence of all his officers''.
Asked whether the conversion of the Line of Control into a permanent border would help India and resolve the Kashmir issue, Mr. Advani said ``if you are to discuss with an adversary a contentious issue, you cannot start with a position, which may be the agreed solution''.
On the issue of suggestions for converting the LoC into an international border, he said ``I believe that when the Shimla Agreement was carved out between (Zulfiqar Ali) Bhutto and Mrs. (Indira) Gandhi in 1972, after the last war between the two countries, that was the undeclared agreement. That was what I understand''.
Asked whether he supported the agreement, he said ``I would think that if I were to say I support it, it would mean I am going contrary to a unanimous resolution of Parliament that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is still part of India''.
Kashmir not to define Indo-Pak. ties
The Kashmir problem should not define the relationship between India and Pakistan and it is upto Islamabad to decide the kind of relationship it wants to have with India, the External Affairs Minister, Jaswant Singh, has said.
In an Interview to Newsweek, Mr. Singh said Gen. Musharraf's speech was for domestic consumption. In terms of its impact on Indo-Pakistan relations, there's not much. Pakistan has to come to a decision about what kind of long-term relationship it wants with India.
India, he said, wants a stable, prosperous Pakistan and a Pakistan that is at peace with itself. But if it continues to pursue a path of compulsive and perpetual hostility as part of its national identity, then no matter what reforms it introduces for itself, ``then, in Indo-Pak. terms, what is it to me?''
Asked whether the Indian Government had room to negotiate on Kashmir, he said ``yes''. ``We have said we will talk about all issues, including the issues of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. (Chinese premier) Zhu Rongji has just been here (India). We have an unsettled border problem with China, which is a matter of concern for both countries.
``We have pursued a policy in which we have said, ``yes, we recognise each other's concerns. Let these concerns not define the relationship. Let's place these concerns on the table, address these concerns and move forward''.
- PTI
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