SRINAGAR, 27 September 2005 — Kashmir’s chief minister called yesterday for telephone links to Pakistan, which were cut 13 years ago to thwart separatist rebels, to be restored to further an ongoing peace process.
India barred calls from Kashmir to neighboring Pakistan in 1992 to thwart the insurgency, said to be backed by Islamabad, in the Himalayan state. But Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed said the links should be restored as part of a peace process begun in January 2004 between India and Pakistan that has led to renewed contacts in Kashmir, including a bus service.
India and Pakistan each hold part of Kashmir but claim it in full.
“I support the restoration of telephone link between Kashmir and different cities of Pakistan,” Sayeed said in a statement, adding that he “believes that the telephone connectivity would further improve this (peace) process.” Indian security agencies oppose restored links for fear that guerrillas in the Muslim-majority state would use them to coordinate attacks.
Families have been divided across Kashmir by a heavily militarized cease-fire line since the subcontinent was partitioned into India and Pakistan in 1947.
Meanwhile, two rebels were killed by Indian troops in a security sweep on the outskirts of Kashmir’s summer capital before the start of the autumn state assembly session, an army spokesman said yesterday.
The rebels were killed in a gunbattle late Sunday in a raid on a suspected hide-out, Indian Army spokesman Vijay Batra said.
Security in Srinagar was increased at the weekend ahead of the new legislative session which is a prime target for insurgent groups opposed to Indian rule, a police officer said.
In October 2001, suspected rebels exploded a car bomb and stormed the legislature in a raid that killed 40 people, including five of the attackers as well as civilians and government employees.
Yesterday, heightened security measures were visible in the summer capital, the center of the separatist insurgency that has claimed more than 44,000 lives since 1989 according to official figures. Separatists put the toll at double the number.
Police snipers occupied rooftops overlooking the legislature and the adjoining areas and spiked barricades were placed at the main gate to the legislature to prevent militants from storming the complex.
Cars and jeeps entering Srinagar were also being searched for arms and explosives, witnesses said.
