NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD, 16 January — Pakistan said yesterday that it was ready to pull back its troops from the border with India if India took the initiative, but New Delhi said it was too early to take Islamabad on its word that it will prevent "cross-border terrorism". US Secretary of State Colin Powell was on his way to South Asia to lower the temperature between the nuclear rivals.
Addressing the National Kashmir Committee’s inaugural meeting in Islamabad, President Pervez Musharraf, however, said that Pakistan would never give up support for the "freedom struggle" in Kashmir. "There should be no doubt in any mind about our commitment to the Kashmir cause and the people of Kashmir," the official APP news agency quoted him as saying. "We will continue to support the just freedom struggle of Kashmiris politically, diplomatically and morally," he said.
In New Delhi, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said India was still waiting for Musharraf to deliver on a pledge to stop Pakistan-based Kashmiri fighters attacking Indian targets in disputed Kashmir and elsewhere in India. "Three days aren’t enough to judge whether Pakistan has taken credible action to prevent cross-border terrorism as demanded by India," Singh said.
"We’ll see what progress is made. We’re awaiting the first steps," Singh told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.
He said India expected Pakistan to hand over men on a list of 20 "criminals and terrorists" wanted in India, including Kashmiri fighters and others with links to Bombay’s crime underworld. "Our aim is straightforward. We want these people back," Singh said. Musharraf has ruled out handing over Pakistani nationals, but has been less adamant about not handing over non-Pakistanis.
Powell, whose last visit in October sparked an outbreak of border firing and a row over whether the Kashmir dispute was the central issue or one of the issues dividing the two countries, was due in Islamabad today and New Delhi tomorrow.
In New Delhi, police said they had arrested four people linked to the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba who they said planned to disrupt India’s Republic Day parade. A police statement said the four men, who were all residents of Indian Kashmir, said under interrogation that a Pakistani commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba had asked them to plant explosives during rehearsals for the Republic Day parade due on Jan. 26.
India blamed the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistan-based Kashmiri separatist group Jaish-e-Mohammed for the attack on its parliament. Islamabad has banned the two groups. Pakistan’s central bank said yesterday it had frozen the bank accounts of three of the five groups banned by Musharraf at the weekend. The bank accounts of Lashkar and Jaish had already had been frozen.
The top eight floors of a 16-story government ministry building in Islamabad were gutted by fire which continued to blaze out of control more than four hours after it erupted late yesterday. The Shaheed-e-Millat building housed offices of 15 government departments, including the record-keeping offices of the Interior Ministry.
The fire broke out around 6:25 p.m. (1325 GMT), more than three hours after the offices closed for the day, and although the cause was not immediately known police ruled out arson. The banned Pakistani groups have threatened retaliation.
