Violence flares in Kashmir despite India's peace move<\/p>\n
NEW DELHI (Agencies): India prepared on Sunday for a month-
\nlong truce in its offensive against separatist guerrillas in
\nKashmir, undaunted by further bloodshed in the week since it
\nannounced the cease-fire.<\/p>\n
Frontline groups have been skeptical about the planned
\nsuspension of the decade-long offensive for the Muslim holy month
\nRamadhan, which is expected to start on Monday or Tuesday
\ndepending on the sighting of the moon.<\/p>\n
But while the Indian army set ground rules at the weekend for
\nits troops, instructing them to stop search and destroy missions
\nand retaliate only in self-defense, top officials met in New
\nDelhi to discuss possibly building on the peace gesture.<\/p>\n
\"Ground is being prepared for (peace) talks but no formal
\ninitiative has been taken so far,\" Girish Saxena, governor of the
\nstate of Jammu and Kashmir, was quoted by The Tribune newspaper
\nas saying after a meeting on internal security.<\/p>\n
He told reporters the killing of 11 people in two separate
\nslaughters since Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's truce
\nannouncement last Sunday was not unexpected, but the government
\nwanted peace.<\/p>\n
At Gurgaon on the outskirts of the Indian capital, the
\nchairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), a
\nmoderate separatist group, joined a U.S.-based mediator for a
\nround of \"track two\" diplomacy on Kashmir.<\/p>\n
JKLF's Yasin Malik, describing Vajpayee as charismatic and
\nhonest, told reporters the leader had the chance to emulate
\nassassinated Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin's Middle East peace
\ninitiative if he would involve Pakistan in the peace talks.<\/p>\n
\"We will have to take every party into confidence,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahideen group announced a two-week
\nunilateral cease-fire in July to consider a peace process but it
\ncollapsed after India refused to include Islamabad in the talks.<\/p>\n
India says it cannot talk to Pakistan unless it stops arming
\nand training separatists in \"cross-border terrorism\". Pakistan
\ndenies Indian charges of fomenting violence in Kashmir.<\/p>\n
Goodwill<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, another Kashmiri separatist chief Abdul Gani Lone
\nhas told Pakistani military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf that
\nIndia's cease-fire offer to militant groups should not be
\nrejected.<\/p>\n
Speaking after a meeting with Musharraf here on Saturday, the
\nleader of the Srinagar-based All Party Hurriyat (freedom)
\nConference (APHC) said Kashmiris believed the unprecedented offer
\nwas a \"goodwill gesture,\" The Dawn daily reported on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\"I told him (Musharraf) that Kashmiris have termed the offer
\nas a 'goodwill gesture' though they are of the opinion that this
\nwill not defuse the explosive situation in Kashmir or help in the
\nholding of peace talks,\" he was quoted as saying by the daily.<\/p>\n
Gani Lone's language contrasted with the belligerent rhetoric
\nof the main militant groups, who have dismissed the proposed
\ntruce during the forthcoming Islamic holy month of Ramadhan as a
\n\"mockery\" of peace efforts.<\/p>\n
Pakistan has also described it as a decoy in India's larger
\nplot to impose a military solution in Kashmir, a Himalayan state
\ndivided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, India's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata
\nParty (BJP) said on Sunday the government should firmly counter
\nany violence by militants in Kashmir despite the month-long truce
\nwhich starts next week.<\/p>\n
\"There should be no slackening in preparedness to tackle any
\nviolence,\" BJP party president Bangaru Laxman told a news
\nconference in Bangalore.<\/p>\n
The Indian army said on Saturday it had asked troops in
\nKashmir to resist provocations from guerrillas but maintain their
\nvigil and self-defense.<\/p>\n
Security forces would continue patrols, but systematic hunting
\nof militants would be suspended, army officials said.<\/p>",
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