SRINAGAR, 20 April 2003 — India is ready for talks with Pakistan on the future of Kashmir but Islamabad first has to take “concrete steps” to end militancy in the region, India’s prime minister said here yesterday.

Speaking at a press conference wrapping up his two-day tour of the disputed region, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee repeated a peace offering he made on Friday to India’s archrival, but said he now awaited a response from Islamabad.

“It is possible to make a new beginning, but it depends on Pakistan,” Vajpayee said.

“We will see what concrete steps Pakistan takes. I have extended the hand of friendship and want to see how Pakistan replies to it.

“Cross-border terrorism should end. Talks can open on all subjects, including Jammu and Kashmir. I hope that across the border, we will get a proper response and we will be able to move ahead.”

He added: “As along as cross border terrorism is going on and militants are preparing to cross the border ... fruitful talks cannot happen.”

When he arrived in the state on Friday, Vajpayee adopted a surprisingly conciliatory tone toward Pakistan, offering a hand of friendship and urging peace talks on Kashmir in an address to a public rally in Srinagar.

Responding to that speech, Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali Friday welcomed Vajpayee’s offer, but said Islamabad would not compromise on its stand on the disputed territory.

Pakistan wants a UN-sponsored plebiscite in Kashmir to allow Kashmiris to exercise their right of self-determination.

During yesterday’s press conference, Vajpayee said conditions internationally had been changed after the US-led war in Iraq.

“Whatever has happened in Iraq is a warning for all of us ... Whatever has happened in Iraq is a warning for the whole world, particularly for developing countries.”

Kashmir, he added, was at a crossroads. “There is need for a new beginning ... We want to travel down the road of friendship. What Pakistan wants to do, only time will tell.”

The prime minister said it was important that the archrivals, who have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, hold talks, “because it can bring solutions.”

“To leave the path of talks and take to some other step is not desirable. It is important that talks should be held and problems resolved and that we look at the development of both nations.”

Asked if separatists and other Kashmiri groups would be invited to the talks, the prime minister said no one would be excluded.

“We are prepared for talks with everyone. Our doors are not closed for anyone.”

Earlier, Vajpayee addressed a convocation of Kashmir University, the first by an Indian premier since the start of insurgency in the region in 1989.

“We have started a process of talks with the elected representatives and other sections of public opinion in the state,” the prime minister told the gathering at the convention. India’s recently appointed pointman on Kashmir, N.N. Vohra, is due to visit Kashmir next week to hold talks with various political parties.

“Today, our sincere commitment to bring peace and normalcy to Kashmir makes me admit that we have often faltered in our journey toward this goal,” said Vajpayee.

“It was sometimes forgotten that democracy is too delicate a plant to be subjected to manipulation and mishandling,” he said, apparently referring to rigged state elections in the region in the past.

Kashmir experts hold the alleged rigging of 1987 state elections responsible for the eruption of anti-Indian rebellion in the state. “We must learn from these mistakes and resolve not to repeat them,” he said.

Vajpayee also said violence had no support “whatsoever in the social history, cultural identity and spiritual traditions of Kashmir.”

“Sufi Islam arrived here neither as a conqueror nor as a competitor, but as an ally to Kashmir’s existing spiritual tradition,” he said, while lauding the co-existence of Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists in the region. Troops had been deployed in strength for the function held in Srinagar’s lakeside International Convention Center.

Vajpayee was later scheduled to fly to Qazigund township in southern Kashmir to inaugurate a computerized railway reservation counter and lay the foundation stone of a railway bridge.

Despite heavy rain, security personnel remained vigilant through the night to prevent any attacks by rebels.