Give up guns first, then we'll talk,
PM tells Kashmiri militants
Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has ruled out talks with Kashmiri militants until complete normalcy is restored in the state.
"There will be no talks with the militants before the return of complete normalcy in the valley. The cult of the gun has to be given up. The youth of Kashmir have a bright future and they should return to the path of peace," he said.
Vajpayee said Jammu and Kashmir has been "converted into a theatre for proxy war by those who have hatched an evil design to take the state away from India".
He pointed out that though India and Pakistan have resumed bilateral talks on a range of issues after a year's gap, Islamabad continues to create "tension and provocation along the border".
This, he said, must stop, for it "is a futile exercise. Equally futile are the attempts to bring in a third party to mediate between India and Pakistan on Kashmir."
The issue, Vajpayee asserted, can and must be resolved only within the framework of the Simla Agreement.
"From the soil of Kashmir, I have a message today for the rulers of Pakistan and the people of the world, that Kashmir is not merely a piece of land for us in India, nor is it important to us from only a strategic point of view. Rather Kashmir is one of the best symbols of India's ancient civilisation and modern nationhood. It is the strongest refutation of the communal basis for the two-nation theory," the prime minister declared.
He said India desires friendly, good-neighbourly relations with Pakistan. But "the fact of the matter is that Pakistan has allowed the Kashmir issue to cloud our bilateral relations and multilateral co-operation in
South Asia as a whole".
Vajpayee also visited Leh, the capital of Ladakh, and Kargil, the town that was subjected to sustained shelling by Pakistani forces a couple of months ago.
On Monday, he visited Tangdar, just 5 km away from the Line of Actual Control in the northern sector, with Governor Girish Chandra Saxena and Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah.
Vajpayee is the first Indian premier to visit Tangdar, which also witnessed heavy shelling from across the LoC in the recent past, resulting in large-scale damage to life and property.
He noted that though the situation in Kashmir has improved considerably, stray incidents continue to shatter the peace, and assured Dr Abdullah of "all help".
Meanwhile, life in Kashmir was paralysed yesterday by a general strike called by the separatist All-Parties Hurriyat Conference to protest against Vajpayee's visit. Shops remained closed and transport was off the roads.
The authorities had made tight security arrangements in Srinagar and Ladakh. But a powerful bomb exploded in a hotel on the high-security Boulevard Road which leads to Nehru Guest House, where the prime minister was staying. No one was hurt.
Addressing a civic reception at Hotel Centaur in Srinagar, Vajpayee repeated India's no-first-use pledge and added that the nuclear bomb was meant for safety. "We want a minimum deterrent and we have announced a moratorium on further testing," he said. Since both countries now have nuclear weapons, they "should live peacefully and as good neighbours," he suggested.
Additional reportage: UNI
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