India is seeking bilateral solution to Kashmir conflict
India is seeking bilateral solution to Kashmir conflict
NEW DELHI (Reuters): Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee said on Saturday the border conflict in Kashmir was a
bilateral issue that would be resolved between New Delhi and
Islamabad, the Press Trust of India reported.
Vajpayee made his statement as India pressed ahead with air
and ground troop attacks to drive out what it calls Pakistan-
backed infiltrators perched in icy mountains in the Drass, Kargil
and Batalik sectors in northern Kashmir.
"There is no need for any mediation. It is a bilateral issue
and we will resolve it," the news agency quoted Vajpayee as
saying before he left for a two-day visit to Bangladesh.
The prime minister said he welcomed the international support
India had received for its military offensive, which began on May
26.
India expects some expression of diplomatic support from
Western nations at a Group of Eight summit this weekend after
U.S. President Bill Clinton urged Pakistan to withdraw militants
fighting on the Indian side of the ceasefire line that divides
Kashmir between the two neighbors.
New Delhi says the guerrillas are mainly Pakistanis, while
Islamabad says they are local "freedom fighters" in a separatist
revolt that has racked Indian-administered Kashmir since 1990.
A senior army official in Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu
and Kashmir state, said troops were locked in intense combat to
recapture a strategic peak overlooking a key highway.
"In a planned manner our boys are making an effort to
recapture a strategic peak, 5140, in the Drass area overlooking
the national highway, and its recovery will make our operations
complete in this particular sub-sector" the official said.
India and Pakistan had exchanged heavy artillery fire in the
Kargil sector along the ceasefire line, he said.
"During the night, the shelling was comparatively less in
these areas due to cold and it started picking up again since the
morning," the official said.
Army officials say they are targeting bases on Pakistan's side
of the ceasefire line which are used to maintain supplies to the
infiltrators, but stress that they have no intention of crossing
the ceasefire line.
The conflict has pushed the two nuclear-capable states to
their worst confrontation in nearly 30 years, although India said
on Friday it saw no threat of a war with its arch-foe. The
neighbors have fought two wars over Kashmir since 1947.
Pakistan says it has asked G8 nations to help resolve the
standoff, and Bangladesh has offered to mediate between India and
Pakistan.
A powerful Islamic militant group warned Pakistan's prime
minister on Friday not to bow to international pressure on
Kashmir because mujahideen, or holy warriors, would not spare
him.