NEW DELHI, 1 January 2004 — Amid varying speculations on the prospects of a meeting between the leaders of India and Pakistan on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in Islamabad, India yesterday announced a fresh set of peace proposals.
The proposals were a “continuation of the step- by- step process for normalization of links and promotion of people- to- people contact,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Navtej Sarna said.
Conveyed yesterday to Pakistan, the proposals include: Removal of restrictions, on reciprocal basis, on the movement of diplomatic personnel, imposed since December 2001; a further increase in the size of the respective missions to 75; holding of technical level talks in the week of Jan. 12 for establishment of a bus link through Munabao and Khokrapar; and holding of technical level talks in the week of Jan. 19 for establishment of a bus link between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad.
Meanwhile, the New Year is set to begin on a positive note as after a gap of two years, India and Pakistan will resume air links from today.
India and Pakistan will also exchange the upgraded lists of nuclear facilities and installations today. Under the Prohibition of Act Against Nuclear Installations, since Jan. 1, 1992 the two nations have been exchanging updated lists of their nuclear installations and facilities on the first day of every calendar year.
The agreement stipulates exemption of nuclear installations from attacks in the event of a war between the two.
While India will hand over its list to Pakistani diplomats in New Delhi today, Pakistan is expected to hand over its list to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.
For the past 13 years against all the ups and downs in Indo-Pak relations, the religious commitment displayed by the two in adhering to this agreement bursts the apprehension floated by major nuclear powers about the risk of a nuclear war in the subcontinent.
Despite having nearly come to the stage of an open conflict, which led to suspension of their communication and transport links, the two neo-nuclear powers exchanged the lists on January 1, 2002 also.
The New Year will begin with the first flight fromNew Delhi to Islamabad carrying External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha.
An Indian Air Force aircraft will take Sinha and senior officials of his ministry to the Pakistani capital to attend the SAARC Council of Ministers’ meeting which begins on Friday.
Vajpayee is also scheduled to fly to Islamabad in an IAF plane on Jan. 3 for the summit.
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will begin its operations from New Delhi with the Delhi-Lahore flight today.
Meanwhile, a top Kashmir separatist appealed to the leaders of India and Pakistan yesterday to make a “bold move” to resolve the half-century dispute over the province.
Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Yasin Malik said both leaders had shown they were willing to resolve the dispute.
“I believe that both of you have firmly grasped the pressing need to initiate a peace process on Kashmir and have voiced statesmen-like wisdom on this,” Malik said in a New Year’s message to the two leaders.
“While there are extremists on all sides that may oppose such a bold move on your parts, I urge both of you to seize this opportunity to now translate your visionary words into visionary deeds.”
The JKLF wants Kashmir independent of both India and Pakistan, which each holding parts of the Himalayan territory and claiming it in full.
Malik said he had collected the signatures of more than 800,000 Kashmiris who supported his call that any talks on the dispute involve the people of the province along with India and Pakistan.
His goal is to gather two million signatures around Indian Kashmir, which has a population of 10 million.
“No solution on Kashmir will be lasting unless it is legitimate in the eyes of the people of Kashmir,” Malik said.
Vajpayee’s trip to Islamabad for the summit would have been unthinkable a year ago, when India and Pakistan were locked in war-like tensions.
But the two countries have tried to repair ties in recent months and on Nov. 26 entered a ceasefire on their Kashmir borders.
Troops in Kashmir shot dead two militants, including a senior commander of a hard-line rebel group, a police spokesman said yesterday.
A senior commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba — one of the two groups blamed by India for a December 2001 attack on its Parliament — was killed in a gun battle in Chewdara village, central Budgam district, he said.
He identified the slain rebel as Bilal Habshe and said he was among the “most wanted militants” in Indian Kashmir.
Another rebel was killed in a clash in the southern district of Anantnag, police said.
The province has been ravaged by a nearly 14-year insurgency against Indian rule that has left more than 40,000 people dead by official count. Separatists put the toll between 80,000 and 100,000.
Violence has continued inside Kashmir despite a truce on its borders between India and Pakistan.
Both India and rebels say the border truce does not affect operations inside the province. At least 187 have died since the ceasefire began, according to police.
