NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD, 7 February — India told Pakistan yesterday to stop dreaming of taking Kashmir as Britain said the latest Indian missile tests were not helpful in defusing tension between the two South Asian neighbors.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said Pakistan would never take the disputed region of Kashmir and reiterated troops massed on the border would be recalled only after Islamabad ended "cross-border terrorism". However the prime minister, on a pre-election campaign tour to the northern frontier state of Punjab, said India did not want war with its nuclear rival.
"They may celebrate Kashmir Day, but they will not get Kashmir," Vajpayee told his Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party workers a day after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf marked "Kashmir Solidarity Day" with a speech condemning alleged atrocities in Indian Kashmir.
"Just by observing Kashmir Day they are not going to get Kashmir... you will not get Kashmir," the Indian premier said at election rallies in the towns of Ferozepur and Pathankot. "Pakistan must stop dreaming."
In the Pakistani capital Islamabad, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said Britain was even-handed in dealing with India and Pakistan but Indian missile tests had been unhelpful against a background of tension between them. "It is a matter of concern at this very sensitive time. It has not been helpful," Hoon told a news conference.
Hoon, like British Prime Minister Tony Blair who visited both India and Pakistan last month, stressed the importance of dialogue between the hostile, nuclear-armed neighbors. But India has so far rejected talks with Pakistan and tested two missile systems in recent weeks — the nuclear-capable Agni missile and the short-range surface-to-air Trishul system.
Hoon met Musharraf and discussed military cooperation and the situation in the region. Defense officials from the two countries are due to meet in Britain on March 5-6 and Britain hoped to deepen its defense relationship with Pakistan, Hoon said. Hoon also commended Pakistan for its backing of the US-led war on terror launched in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
