NEW DELHI, 21 November 2004 — Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has shrugged off Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s remarks that he was discouraged by signals from New Delhi over resolving the Kashmir dispute.

“All this has to be taken in our stride,” Manmohan was quoted as saying by the Hindu newspaper in response to Musharraf’s remark that “vibes” from India did “not encourage a process of normalization” of ties.

Manmohan said he did not believe in responding to “every issue” through the media, adding “There are several channels to respond,” the Hindu said.

Musharraf in an interview with AFP late Thursday said he was “not encouraged” by the signals coming from India. He accused New Delhi of failing to show flexibility.

“Certainly the vibes should be much better than this, that we are moving, that we want to... there ought to be a desire to move forward toward peace.

“While (from) there we get vibes in the opposite direction, they do not encourage peace.”

Musharraf was responding to comments by Manmohan during a visit to Kashmir in which he rejected division of the Himalayan region on religious lines or the redrafting of its borders.

Flexibility Sought

In Lahore yesterday, Musharraf said both Pakistan and India had to make concessions to resolve their decades-old dispute over the Himalayan region.

Pakistan would not give up its demand for a UN-run plebiscite in the disputed region unless India also showed flexibility on its position that Kashmir is an integral part of itself, he said.

“We would like to meet India halfway. We want India to also move halfway,” Musharraf told a conference of South Asian journalists in the eastern Pakistani city.

“We will leave our position when India leaves its position.”

Musharraf also pledged that Pakistan would not ignore the wishes of Kashmiris while discussing Kashmir’s future with India.

The nuclear-armed rivals have embarked on a peace process after going to the brink of their fourth war in 2002. Kashmir is widely seen as their most intractable problem.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz visits India as part of a regional tour on Tuesday. Officials say his talks are expected to cover Kashmir.

During his trip to Kashmir, Manmohan reiterated India’s long-held stand that Kashmir was an integral part of the country and there could be no re-drawing of borders.

Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan for decades and the dispute has sparked two of their three wars.

A cease-fire along a line separating the two sides’ forces in the region, known as the Line of Control (LoC), was agreed nearly a year ago and has been holding.

Musharraf also expressed disappointment over India’s response to his proposals to resolve the dispute. He said last month Kashmir could be demilitarized and placed under UN control, put under joint control or even given independence.

India announced last week it would pull some of its troops out of Kashmir, where insurgents have been battling Indian rule since 1989. Pakistan welcomed the troop cut as a positive step toward reducing tension.

More Troops Pull Out

Yesterday India pulled out around 3,000 troops from Kashmir in a planned withdrawal of army units from the region, officials said.

“Around 3,000 troops of three different army units involved in counter-terrorism operations were de-inducted from the border district of Rajouri on Saturday,” a defense official, who did not want to be named, said.

The soldiers left their bases in convoys of trucks, jeeps and buses from the Hindu-dominated Jammu region of India’s only Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Separately, an army officer said troops were not withdrawn from the military Line of Control that divides Indian and Pakistani Kashmir.

“The (withdrawing) troops were involved in counter-terrorism operations, patrolling and sanitization and surveillance of the area,” Brig. D.K. Chowdhary told reporters.

Army officials did not give further details. Though India has not said how many troops it plans to withdraw from Kashmir, some army officers have put the number at over 20,000.

In the first pull-out after Manmohan’s announcement, hundreds of soldiers withdrew from the separatist rebel stronghold of Anantnag in southern Kashmir on Wednesday.

India accuses Pakistan of arming, training and sending militants to fight security forces in Indian Kashmir. Pakistan denies the accusation and accuses India of human rights abuses in the region.