India Denies Air Attack in Pakistan-Ruled Kashmir as U.S. Official Arrives in New Delhi

23/08/2002| IslamWeb

India on Friday denied media reports it had launched an air attack on a military post in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. "It's normal firing which has been become an almost routine feature in certain areas on the Line of Control (cease-fire line). No air power was used," an army spokesman told Reuters. The BBC had quoted Pakistani television saying India had launched an unprovoked air attack in Gultari sector in the northern part of the Himalayan region of Kashmir on Thursday night.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is in New Delhi on his latest mission to ease tensions between the nuclear neighbors.

Kashmir, cross-border terrorism on the table for Armitage talks

Though so-called cross-border terrorism and elections in Kashmir topped the agenda in talks Friday between Indian leaders and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, military maneuvers and bilateral trade were also on the table.

He was scheduled to visit Islamabad on Saturday for a similar round of consultations with Pakistani officials.

Armitage first met with Defense Secretary George Fernandes and discussed military cooperation between the United States and India, according to U.S. Embassy spokesman Gordon Duguid.

The Indian and American navies soon will hold another round of joint exercises in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea, Duguid said, as well as joint exercises in Alaska. Both countries are testing counterterrorism maneuvers to safeguard their sea lanes.

Armitage declined to speak with reporters and his meetings were closed to the media.

Though India and Pakistan have toned down their battlefield rhetoric, they're still on a war footing with 1 million troops along their frontier. Washington is anxious to maintain the current calm, as another war in South Asia would hinder its anti-terrorism efforts in neighboring Afghanistan.

Kashmiri nationalists have called for a boycott of the elections to be held in September and October. They say that past elections were rigged in favor of the pro-India ruling party and that Kashmiris should first be allowed to fulfill a decades-old U.N. resolution giving them the right to self-determination.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is scheduled to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush in September on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting.

PHOTO CAPTION

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage arrives at a meeting with Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes in New Delhi, India, Friday, Aug. 23, 2002. New Delhi leaders planned to tell Armitage during the talks that Pakistans military leader has broken his pledge to halt the infiltration of Pakistan-based Islamic militants into Indian Kashmir. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)