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Shahid K Abbas in New Delhi
India on Wednesday expressed shock and dismay over Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's 'continued negative posturing' and his repeated attempts to 'heighten tensions by provocative language' and said, 'his denigration of the electoral process in Jammu and Kashmir confirms India's concerns that Pakistan intends to sabotage the J&K election'.
Delivering a swift and resounding rebuff to Musharraf's address to the nation on the occasion of Pakistan's independence day, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Nirupama Rao described his address as a 're-cycled hackneyed thinking'.
"We have taken note of his intention to disrupt the peaceful election in Jammu and Kashmir and to continue his hostile postures towards India. The Government of India will take necessary measures to counter Pakistan's design," she said.
Describing Musharraf's reference to J&K in his address as 'empty rhetoric', Rao said, "It is becoming increasingly clear, as we had suspected all along, that Musharraf has no intention of putting an end to the involvement of the Pakistani state and its agencies with terrorism, including cross-border terrorism. Our past scepticism, based on the wide gap between his words and actions, has once again been justified."
Wondering that instead of indicating what further measures he intended to take to end cross-border infiltration and terrorism, in keeping with his commitments of January 12, May 27 and June 6, the spokesperson said, "He has only repeated the time-worn and frayed formulations about so-called self-determination, and core dispute."
"After rigged referendum in Pakistan and constitutional and political manipulations that are going on before the October elections there, one would have hoped that Musharraf would have been more restrained in his pronouncements on the election in J&K in September and October," she said
Rao said, "Perhaps it is the contrast between free and fair election in J&K within the framework of India's democracy and the national elections in Pakistan conducted by a military regime that worries him."
"Conduct of peaceful elections in J&K is linked to Pakistan's peaceful conduct, and this responsibility Musharraf does not seem to want to discharge," she said.
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