ISLAMABAD, 24 March 2005 — Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf yesterday urged Pakistan and India to put behind their tense bitter past and move toward peace through the resolution of all outstanding problems between them including the core issue of Kashmir.
Amid a display of military power, Musharraf said that Pakistan will continue its “moral, diplomatic and political” support for separatists in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir who want freedom from Indian rule.
“We are totally with the Kashmiris in their struggle,” Musharraf said in an address at a military parade marking Pakistan’s National Day, which featured a march through the capital that included thousands of troops, nuclear-capable missiles and other high-tech weaponry.
“Our moral, diplomatic and political help will always continue in their struggle until they succeed in their great objective. Our sincere prayers are with them,” Musharraf said.
Kashmir is divided between Pakistan and India but each country claims the region in its entirety. Separatists have waged an insurgency in the Indian portion of Kashmir for independence or a merger with Pakistan. India accuses Pakistan of backing the rebels, a charge Islamabad denies.
In recent months, India and Pakistan have taken steps to normalize relations and they have pledged to resolve the Kashmir issue peacefully. Musharraf is due to visit India on April 17 to meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and watch a cricket match.
Musharraf said Pakistan and India should resolve all disputes, including Kashmir, with “sincerity, courage and flexibility.”
Musharraf welcomed a bus service that both the nations have scheduled to resume April 7 between the parts of Kashmir they control, more than half a century after the travel link was halted. “But this bus service is not a solution of Kashmir (issue). This is a step in confidence building,” he said. Pakistan will not be intimidated while seeking peace with its neighbors. I think it necessary to clarify that we want peace and want to resolve all issues through negotiations. But we will never come under pressure,” he said.
At the parade, hundreds of armed troops marched in columns down a main street in Islamabad to celebrate the March 23, 1940, resolution by Islamic leaders demanding a homeland for Muslims on the Indian subcontinent, top army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said.
The parade was held this year for the first time since 2001. The armed forces display was canceled in 2002 because of a military standoff with India, in 2003 because of the situation in Iraq and in 2004 due to security reasons, Sultan said. Army trucks carried models of various versions of Pakistan’s long-range nuclear-capable missiles and fighter jets flew overhead in an air show.
Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai was chief guest, watching the parade along with Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
Musharraf said Karzai’s presence at the ceremony underlined the deep brotherly relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Aziz, in a message to the nation, said the country should keep moving on the path of a moderate progressive Islamic welfare state. He called on people to discourage “hatred, extremism and exploitation in all forms and manifestations.”
Meanwhile, a civilian was killed in a car-bomb explosion, while troops shot dead four militant commanders as fresh violence erupted in revolt-hit Indian Kashmir, police said yesterday. The violence comes a fortnight ahead of resumption of the bus service linking the Indian and Pakistani zones of Kashmir, a step regarded as a key confidence-building measure between the two nuclear-armed rivals.
