The Hindu : Talks only solution: Musharraf

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 03, 2003

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International

Talks only solution: Musharraf

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD May 2. The Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, has said that the Kashmir issue could be resolved only through ``meaningful dialogue.''

He denied that there was any roadmap to resolve the issue as reported in a section of the media here. The United States also denied that it had set any deadline to resolve the issue and described the report quoting American administrator in Iraq, Gen. Jay Garner, in this regard as ``total fabrication and absolutely not true.''

``We were consistently saying that we want talks, but it was India that was showing rigidity,'' he said in an interview to a London-based Urdu TV channel `ARV Gold.'

``Now it appears that some change has come from their side,'' he said in the interview also carried by the state-run APP news agency.

Replying to questions on the peace initiative by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and his Pakistani counterpart, Zafarullah Khan Jamali, he said he believed there was a growing realisation among the Indian leadership that the Kashmir issue could be resolved only through ``meaningful dialogue.''

About Vajpayee-Khan telephonic conversation, Gen. Musharraf said, ``this is a very good sign. I think it is a new beginning after the Agra Summit.''

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