NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD, 2 January — India and Pakistan yesterday appeared to be inching back from the brink of conflict, despite continued military tension on their border and mixed signals over the possibility of bilateral talks at an upcoming South Asia summit.
A shift from confrontation to possible negotiation was signaled yesterday by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in a written New Year article that included a special message for the Pakistan government. "Shed your anti-India mentality and take effective steps to stop cross-border terrorism, and you will find India willing to walk more than half the distance to work closely with Pakistan to resolve, through dialogue, any issue, including the contentious issue of Jammu and Kashmir," Vajpayee said.
He said: "Together, let us leave the past of futile hostilities behind us and embrace a future free of tension." In Islamabad, however, Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan denied there was an "anti-India policy". Had Pakistan such a policy, President Pervez Musharraf would not have gone to India last July in pursuit of resolving the outstanding disputes between the two countries through peaceful means, he said.
Pakistan said yesterday that India’s military buildup was mounting along the border. "All along the border there is a continuing Indian military buildup and concentration of forces far in excess of what we have seen in the past," said military government spokesman Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi.
India denied the charge, saying its defensive buildup was "more or less complete". "It is still highly explosive and dangerous," said an army official in Pakistani-held Kashmir’s capital, Muzaffarabad. "Any small incident could lead to the situation becoming out of control."
In a sign there was at least some contact between the sides, India’s Foreign Ministry announced the joint renewal of the 1991 pact not to target nuclear institutions. "India and Pakistan, through diplomatic channels, simultaneously at New Delhi and Islamabad, exchanged lists of nuclear installations and facilities," the ministry said.
