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India prefers 'wait-and-watch'
on Pakistan's offer

India is monitoring Pakistan Foreign Secretary Inam Ul-Haq's assertion that his country will maintain restraint along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, with New Delhi hoping that Islamabad's declaration will be translated into action.

"We are monitoring the statement that Islamabad will ensure that its armed forces maintain restraint along the LoC. We hope that its words will be followed by deeds," a senior official of the ministry of external affairs told rediff.com on Saturday night.

He said that since the Vajpayee government had taken the initiative to enforce a cease-fire in J&K, "it is a bit surprising for Islamabad to hope that we will reciprocate. The international community is aware that the offer for peace had come from us and therefore Haq's reference to India reciprocating along the LoC was redundant."

Another senior MEA official pointed out that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's decision to unilaterally declare the cease-fire in J&K had been appreciated by the international community, causing much discomfiture in official circles in Pakistan.

He contended that US Assistant Secretary Karl Inderfurth's farewell visit to New Delhi and neighbouring countries in South Asia, barring Pakistan, "is yet another snub to Islamabad, which is under international pressure to reciprocate New Delhi's gesture."

Prof Chintamani Mahapatra of the School of American Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, said that Vajpayee's peace offer "had caught Islamabad by surprise and it is at pains to give a suitable reaction since the international community is watching how it responds."

That is why the foreign secretary had talked about Islamabad maintaining "maximum restraint'' along the LoC in the violence-prone state, Mahapatra pointed out. But he added that the fact that Haq also hoped that India would do likewise "gave the game away because the Indian armed forces have stood vigil and merely responded to hostile moves by Islamabad's armed forces and militants."

A senior official of the ministry of defence pointed out that the Border Security Force deployed in the border area in J&K had reported "considering lessening'' of firing from across the border. Barring sporadic incidents, there had been a relative calm from the other side of the LoC ever since New Delhi declared its cease-fire, he said.

Meanwhile, All Party Hurriyat Conference chief Prof Abdul Gani Bhat arrived in New Delhi on Saturday, reiterating that the Vajpayee government's peace initiative was welcome "but Pakistan is a party in the Kashmir dispute and it has to be involved in dialogue for a peaceful solution to the Kashmir dispute."

Bhat said the Hurriyat was monitoring developments in Kashmir and hoped that there would be no further delay in breaking the deadlock that was resulting in the loss of lives of innocent Kashmiris and the destruction of property.

Hurriyat sources hinted that efforts were underway "on both sides of the Kashmir border''. However, the stalemate persisted because of New Delhi's insistence that Islamabad must end cross-border terrorism before the two sat at the negotiating table.

Islamabad maintained that the cease-fire would only be effective by holding a "purposeful dialogue for an amicable solution of the Kashmir problem."

In its latest manifestation, the Track II diplomacy being carried out in Pakistan and India for a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue has seen yet another American businessman of Pakistani origin, Manzoor Ijaz, trying to untie the Gordian knot in the violence-affected state.

While Ijaz is said to shuttling between Islamabad and New Delhi to 'facilitate' dialogue between the South Asian neighbours, the Hurriyat sources indicated that Vajpayee's peace initiative in Kashmir could be the culmination of the Track II diplomacy.

Another wealthy US businessman of Pakistani origin, Farooq Kathwari of the Kashmir study group some months ago had visited New Delhi and Islamabad to facilitate dialogue on Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

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