PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia, 17 October 2003 — President Pervez Musharraf called on Muslim leaders yesterday to pressure New Delhi to move ahead with peace talks over Kashmir, accusing India of belligerence.
Musharraf, speaking at the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) on the first day of a two-day summit, tried to rally his counterparts by describing the conflict over the Himalayan region as a “core Islamic cause”.
Musharraf pleaded for the OIC to help persuade India to enter talks based on an action plan for peace he delivered at the United Nations last month.
“This Conference should ask India to reconsider its rejectionist and belligerent posture,” he said, adding India’s confrontation with Pakistan was dangerous and pointless.
A call for talks by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee last April failed to defuse tension, and the border between the two nuclear-armed neighbors remains one of the world’s most dangerous flash points.
The two archenemies came close to their third war over Kashmir during a 10-month military standoff last year triggered by an attack on India’s Parliament that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based Kashmiri militants. Pakistan has denied the charge.
India says Kashmir is a bilateral issue and has no place in an international forum, and it refuses to talk until Pakistan puts an end to cross-border terrorism.
Indian Army Chief Gen. N.C. Vij said last week there has been no let up in militant incursions from Pakistan’s side of the Line of Control dividing Jammu and Kashmir.
The OIC in the past has issued resolutions calling for both sides to talk, and supporting Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.
India regards the unrest as an internal affair, but Islamabad says it is dispute that warrants international mediation.
Pakistan seeks to equate the situation of the Kashmiris with that of the Palestinians. OIC Secretary-General Abdelouahed Belkeziz has called Jammu and Kashmir “Indian-occupied.”
