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No chance of Vajpayee-Musharraf meet in US: Abdullah

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

Minister of State for External Affairs Omar Abdullah on Sunday ruled out any possibility of a meeting between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in the United States.

"I have seen the schedule of the prime minister and it is totally packed. There is no possibility of the two leaders meeting in the US. Besides, Vajpayee has already made it clear that if he has to meet Musharraf then he can do so either in Delhi or in Islamabad.

"I have also seen the schedule of Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh. Any meeting between him and his Pakistani counterpart is not on the cards," he said.

Talking about the US ban on the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, he said that it was a welcome step. "We welcome the decision. But this has come late. We have been fighting terrorism in Kashmir for last twelve years," Omar Abdullah told Star TV in an interview.

The minister also said that the Kashmir issue was bound to come up during US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's visit to India. "The issue of cross-border terrorism is bound to come up," he said.

He wondered why the world leaders were telling India to exercise restrain while dealing with militancy in Kashmir. "I think the world leaders should tell Pakistan to exercise restrain and bring down the violence in Jammu and Kashmir," he said.

When asked if he agreed with his father and Chief Minister of J&K, Farooq Abdullah, that Indian security forces should cross the Line of Control and demolish the terrorist training camps, he said, "We reserve the right of hot pursuit."

"This is an international law. We do not think that we want to escalate the situation in J&K. My father might be in minority right now when he says that we should cross the LoC. But if the suicide attacks continue then the country might rise and say the same thing that he is is saying right now."

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