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Musharraf's meet with Hurriyat, editors hurts India
Three words led to summit dead-lock
*Both countries have to begin again: India

NEW DELHI, July 18: Sharp differences over use of words like "dispute", "cross border terrorism" and "freedom struggle" in relation to Jammu and Kashmir were among the factors that led to a deadlock at the Vajpayee-Musharraf summit in Agra, highly placed sources said tonight.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s meeting with Hurriyat leaders and his televised breakfast meeting with Indian editors added to vitiating the atmosphere, they said giving details about the reasons that led to the stalemate.

The two things which really "hurt" India were Musharraf’s meeting with Hurriyat leaders and the televised meeting with editors where the visiting dignitary attacked New Delhi on the host’s soil.

"The telecast of the meeting caught the Indian Government unawares hurting its sentiments and what added to the insult was Musharraf’s insistence on Kashmir," sources said.

At one point of time India agreed to give topmost priority to Kashmir in the proposed joint declaration while making the confidence building measures the second important point.

But when Pakistan refused to accept inclusion of the phrase cross-border terrorism, India objected to signing the document.

What was all the more objectionable was Islamabad insisting there should be a rider that this is all agreed subject to and dependent upon the ‘movement’ in Kashmir, the sources said.

The sources said though Musharraf agreed at the breakfast meeting with editors to accept Kashmir as an "issue" and not as a "dispute", at the time of drafting the declaration the Pakistan leader insisted on using the word "dispute".

On the phrase "cross border terrorism", Musharraf was not prepared to accept it saying that what was taking place in the Valley was a "freedom struggle".

Another road block was Musharraf’s rider that till Kashmir issue was not resolved relations between the two countries cannot be normalised, the sources said.

When Musharraf asked Vajpayee before leaving for Islamabad why Kashmir was a "taboo" for India, the Prime Minister replied that if the Pakistan leader wanted to make Kashmir the central issue, "then we would have to go back to the partition days."

Vajpayee told Musharraf despite the perception that the Pakistan President was the author of Kargil, he was invited for a summit as India wanted peace "but you spoke of the 1971 Bangladesh war".

Refuting charges that the Government had not done any "home work" before the summit, the sources said all channels were opened with Pakistan through the Ministry of External Affairs but it seems Pakistan was not keen on making pre-summit preparations.

Meanwhile, India today rejected Pakistan’s suggestion of picking up the threads from the draft joint declaration prepared in Agra, asserting that the two countries have to "begin again" on the basis of Shimla and Lahore accords.

"It is disappointing that no closure was reached on the text of the agreement. We will, therefore, have to begin again on the basis of the existing agreements—Shimla agreement and the Lahore declaration—which are the cornerstones of India-Pakistan bilateral relations,"an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson told reporters here.

She was responding to questions on remarks made by Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar in Islamabad that the draft declaration would serve as "valuable foundation" for the two leaders for reaching a "full agreement" at a future meeting.

India, she said, was happy that President Pervez Musharraf has carried the impression back to Pakistan that there was a great desire within India for the establishment of good neighbourly relations between the two countries.

"The caravan of peace will move ahead. Our engagement with Pakistan will continue. The processes of peace that have been put in place at the initiative of the Prime Minister will also proceed forward," she said.

Pressed whether there was nothing for the two sides to pick up from the Agra summit, she said "various proposals were discussed during the parleys. But it is self-evident that until such proposals reach closure and subscription by signature, there is no agreement. Therefore we will have to begin again.

The spokesperson, however, maintained that the discussions at Agra were useful and "not at all wasted".

Asked about Sattar’s new definition of cross-border terrorism, she said New Delhi was astonished at the technicalities being voiced by Pakistan.

"We know very well that Pakistan understands perfectly what is meant by cross-border terrorism which is inclusive of encouraging and abetting infiltration and terrorism across the Line of Control", she said.

Giving a new twist, Sattar had said "no reference was made to any cross-LoC terrorism in the draft".

About Sattar giving out contents of the draft declaration, she said "this is a very novel interpretation on how diplomatic parleys have to be conducted."

She reminded the Pakistan side that such information cannot violate the terms of confidentiality or diplomatic propriety.

"If the logic of the media conducting negotiations simultaneously with the principals is to be accepted, then I am afraid international or bilateral confidential parleys or discussions might very well be held in an amphitheatre with the media present all the time".

In a clear expression of New Delhi’s disapproval of Musharraf going public in the midst of the negotiations, the spokesperson said it was an unwritten convention that during one-on-one parleys between leaders of Governments, quite often even note-taking was dispensed with, leave alone constant sharing with the media.

She said there were occasions when there were no note takers during the one-on-one meetings between the two leaders. (PTI)

‘Musharraf was under intense pressure from militants’

NEW DELHI, July 18: Pressure of militant and fundamentalist outfits in Pakistan on President Pervez Musharraf regarding the Kashmir issue was one of the major reasons for the breakdown of his talks with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in Agra, official sources said here.

Before coming for the summit, Musharraf had met a group top militant leaders and discussed Kashmir issue, even though these outfits had termed the talks as a "fraud".

Pakistani spokesman Maj Gen Rashid Qureshis statement that an "invisible hand" obstructed the talks should be seen in the context of the building up of pressure by these outfits, they said.

Even before a word was uttered in the summit, outfits like Hizbul Mujahedeen had announced plans to continue with their operations regardless of the outcome of the talks. Its spokesman on July 11 had said "it is our Jihad that forced the Indian Government to come to the negotiating table and we will not reduce the intensity of our struggle until Indian forces vacate their occupation of Kashmir", according to Pakistani media reports.

"These talks are a fraud and a move by (Prime Minister) Vajpayee to buy time for his fatigued Army," Yahya Mujahid, spokesman for Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), had said the same day. "We will, Inshallah (god willing), step up our operations against Indian forces in coming days." Similar were the views of Harkatul Mujahedeen leaders.

When the summit failed to achieve anything concrete, the same groups lauded Musharraf’s "bold" stand.

While Amir of LeT, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, congratulated the Pakistani President for adopting a "bold and clear" stand, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation League chief Abdul Majeed Malik was quoted as saying the Pakistani leader had scored a "diplomatic victory", according to `The News International’ today.

In his meeting with editors in Agra, Musharraf’s statement that if he ignored Kashmir he would have to buy off Neharawali Haveli to stay here reflected the pressures on him on the Kashmir issue from his main constituency - the Army and the militant and fundamentalist outfits, the sources said.

They said Musharraf came to India "carrying the agenda of the militant groups", like United Jehadi Council, Al Badr and Jamaat-e-Islami, who had reportedly warned that they would not accept any solution to Kashmir barring the accession of the Valley to Pakistan.

However, the sources said New Delhi should make efforts to continue the dialogue process. (PTI)