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India denies secret deal with Sharief on Kashmir

Amberish K Diwanji in New Delhi

The government has denied any secret deal with Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue, as stated by former Pakistani foreign minister Niaz Naik.

Naik had said the deal was scuttled by the Pakistan Army's intrusion into Kargil in May this year.

Brajesh Mishra, principal secretary to the prime minister and national security adviser, said there was no truth in media reports that the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers had reached an agreement secretly to resolve the Kashmir issue by October 1999.

In an interview to a television channel, Mishra said Naik had visited India secretly on the night of June 26 and met him, to be told categorically that Pakistan would have to withdraw from Kargil.

He said the purpose of Naik's visit was to get a joint statement from India and Pakistan. India turned down this request.

External affairs ministry spokesman Raminder Singh Jassal also said the report of a secret deal was false. "We deny that any such deal was struck," he said.

Jassal pointed out that Naik had visited India during the Kargil conflict as part of the dialogue to end the conflict.

He said the Kashmir dispute is part of the continuing composite dialogue between the neighbours and there is no secret deal or negotiation to resolve it.

Naik was in New Delhi between June 26 and 28 as secret special envoy of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief to meet Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Mishra.

But news of the visit was leaked from Islamabad, forcing the Indian authorities to admit to having played host to Naik.

Later, there were also reports of a secret visit by journalist R K Misra and a senior official of the external affairs ministry to Islamabad, allegedly at the Indian government's behest. But the government has denied all such reports.

The government has also denied reports that Sharief was keen to visit India on his way back to Islamabad from Beijing, but was spurned by New Delhi. "Sharief only said he was visiting Beijing and on his return would offer a solution to resolve the Kargil conflict," Mishra insisted in his television interview.

The Kargil Crisis

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