India, Pakistan dig in heels as Rumsfeld visit looms
India, Pakistan dig in heels as Rumsfeld visit looms
Bill Tarrant and Myra MacDonald, Reuters, Islamabad/New Delhi
India and Pakistan showed no sign of compromise on Wednesday in a stand-off over Kashmir that has brought the nuclear-armed foes to the brink of war, as the United States prepared fresh diplomatic efforts to ease tension.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said he would consider joint patrols of the Kashmir border if Pakistan ends the incursion of guerrillas that has stoked a 12-year rebellion in India's only Muslim-majority state.
But Pakistan's foreign ministry immediately dismissed the proposal as old hat, adding the suggestion was "unlikely to work".
India also said it saw no sign that cross border infiltration by Kashmiri separatists had ended -- despite claims from the main separatist group that no incursions were taking place -- and both sides traded artillery and mortar fire and used armored vehicles against each other for the first time in this conflict.
Vajpayee, in Kazakhstan for a regional security meeting, declined to meet Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf while there, saying he would only do so once India sees a conclusive end to the infiltrations.
His defense minister, George Fernandes, said there were no signs of that so far.
"Whatever information has so far been coming, it does not indicate there has been any substantial or noticeable reduction in infiltration," Fernandes told reporters in Bangalore.
Vajpayee said Islamabad must also dismantle militant camps on the Pakistani side of the line.
"Our stand is clear," he told a news conference following the security summit. "We want to resolve all issues through bilateral talks including Kashmir, (but) cross-border terrorism must stop before any talks can begin."
Pakistan maintains there is no infiltration across the Line of Control that divides Kashmir and has called for independent observers, such UN monitors, to be allowed to verify this.
"We refuse to accept the Indian claim of being the accusers as well as the judges. If they are the accusers, let there be somebody else to act as the judge," Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf told CNN in an interview.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will visit India and Pakistan in the coming days in a last-ditch effort to prevent the skirmishing in Kashmir from escalating into the fourth war between the old foes.
Pakistan on Wednesday also ordered the expulsion of an Indian diplomat after accusing him of spying. Both sides have already significantly reduced their staff in the other country and frequently engage in tit-for-tat expulsions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin met the Indian and Pakistani leaders separately in Almaty. He said afterwards they had sent "very positive signals" but differed on preconditions for talks.
Musharraf said he had accepted an invitation to visit Moscow and added he had expected Putin to invite Vajpayee too, but the Russian president did not mention an invitation to the Indian prime minister.