NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD, 9 January — India yesterday ruled out any third party mediation to resolve its ongoing standoff with Pakistan as Islamabad urged it to listen to international counsels to de-escalate the border tension and settle their differences through dialogue.
"Our stand on this issue has been made clear on several occasions in the past," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nirupama Rao said in response to reporters’ questions about any possible American role in bringing the two sides together to the negotiating table. She said it was for the two countries to solve their differences through bilateral dialogue.
Meanwhile, a Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters in Islamabad that Pakistan hoped that India would withdraw its forces to peace-time locations. Aziz Ahmed Khan was commenting on Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh’s statement in New Delhi on Monday ruling out any talks with Pakistan until Islamabad stopped its alleged "cross-border terrorism" — New Delhi’s term for secessionist militancy in Indian-administered Kashmir. Pakistan rejects the charge, insisting that the insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir is a freedom struggle.
Tension between the two countries rose after the Dec. 13 terrorist attack on the Indian parliament. India accused Pakistan-based militants of being behind the attack and the two sides moved their troops to the border areas.
While Pakistan took steps against militant groups like freezing their bank accounts, New Delhi says it is not enough and Islamabad must stop supporting militancy in Kashmir.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf met his top army officers yesterday to discuss the military standoff with India that has tens of thousands of troops facing off a few meters apart and on the brink of war. On the border, the hostile armies traded intermittent gunfire and Pakistani soldiers on the front line said they were ready for action at any time.
"Pakistan is a responsible and peace-loving nation but in case of any aggression, we will respond with complete national will and resolve," Musharraf said at a meeting of his army corps commanders at General Headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, reported by state media.
"The defense of the country is a sacred duty and by the grace of Allah, the Pakistan Army is capable of meeting all types of challenges," Musharraf was quoted as saying. The president, a general who came to power in a coup in 1999, was briefed on all military preparations, state media said. Just a day earlier, Musharraf made his strongest statement yet condemning militant violence and suggested his government, which last month launched a sweeping crackdown on militant groups, could take more steps. He said he would address the nation on the issue soon.
India yesterday said it was still waiting for Pakistan to take "substantive" steps against militants. "What we are expecting from Pakistan is concrete, serious, substantive steps to deal with cross-border terrorism, and the question of terrorists who operate from Pakistan soil," said Rao.
Stressing that India had yet to see any genuine shift by Pakistan in its stance towards militant groups, Rao called on Islamabad to openly renounce terrorism. "The time has come for Pakistan to shed the ambivalence which it shows on such issues."
