India Steps Up Patrols After Kashmir Slaughter
S R I N A G A R, India, Aug. 4 -- Indian troops stepped up patrols in areas of Kashmir bordering Pakistan today as they moved to ferret out militants responsible for massacres in the troubled territory this week.
The army said it had launched a second day of helicopter operations in mountain and jungle areas of the Jammu and Kashmir state while India made its gambit to end a decade-old rebellion that has stirred up violence and tensions in the area.
In New Delhi, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee told parliament he would not give up efforts to restore peace.
Those efforts took a stride forward Thursday, when government officials held first talks with the frontline militant group Hizbul Mujahideen in which the two sides agreed to set up a bipartisan committee to thrash out a cease-fire process.
But Kashmir’s main separatist alliance brushed aside the cease-fire talks and said only a three-way dialogue involving it, Pakistan and India could untangle the 53-year-old Kashmir dispute.
“I cannot say about Hizb talks, but a collective political effort is needed, which ipso facto includes India, Pakistan and the APHC,” said Abdul Gani Bhat, chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference.
“A step in isolation cannot lead you to your destination,” said Bhat, whose organization includes 22 separatist, religious and political groups.
India has said it is ready to talk to all militant groups, but has frowned on involving arch-rival Pakistan, which it blames for stoking the rebellion.
Pakistan today rejected Vajpayee’s charge that this week’s Kashmir bloodbath was part of a “proxy war” by Pakistan over the disputed Himalayan region.
“The government of Pakistan once again rejects these baseless allegations as part of the Indian government’s effort to divert attention from its own atrocities against the Kashmiri people and to malign the Kashmir freedom struggle,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Related Stories
ABC News Live