High Hopes Dashed in Agra

04/04/2001| IslamWeb

AGRA, India (Islamweb & Agencies) - South Asian nuclear rivals India and Pakistan failed to reach an accord on their half-century dispute over Kashmir, ending a landmark three-day summit Monday on a solemn note.Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf met for an hour with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as midnight approached in one final attempt to salvage the three-day summit.
But after a ``stalemate'' in the talks, Musharraf and his delegation departed for the airport in Agra and flew back to Pakistan without any agreement, said Pakistani information secretary Anwar Mahmood.
The mood was in sharp contrast to the days before, when Musharraf arrived Saturday to a warm welcome, extended his talks with Vajpayee for several hours, and engaged senior Indian editors in a frank discourse early Monday.
Pakistan government spokesman Ashfaq Ahmed Gondal told the Press Trust of India news agency that India was to blame for the collapse. ``President Pervez Musharraf waited for the Indian response for signing the agreement. Since it was not there, the president has decided to leave,'' Gondal said.
Some Indian officials said the talks broke down over the sensitive issue of cross-border violence. It had been hoped that the joint declaration widely expected between the two governments would make new ground on Kashmir, security, violence and narcotics.
Musharraf had insisted throughout the summit that the two countries must resolve their dispute over Kashmir, where Muslim Resistance groups are fighting for independence or a merger with Pakistan, before the nuclear-armed adversaries can improve relations.
Since Muslim Pakistan was carved out of Hindu-majority India following independence from Britain, both have claimed the entire Jammu-Kashmir region. A cease-fire line from the 1971 war divides it between them, with two-thirds under Indian control and the remainder in Pakistan.
As many as 60,000 people have died in Kashmir since 1989.
In Pakistan, one of the main Resistance groups, Al-Badr Mujahedeen, fighting in Indian-held Kashmir said that it knew the peace talks would fail.
Meanwhile fighting in Kashmir continued to take its toll. Thirty people were killed in confrontations between Indian occupation soldiers and Islamic Resistance on Monday, raising the number of fatalities during the summit to 86. Most Resistance groups opposed the summit.
Kashmir is the flash point of more than five decades of enmity between the neighbors.
Both leaders must appease hard-liners at home, and neither can appear to give away too much.
PHOTO CAPTION:
The summit between the two leaders ended late Monday without an agreement on the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, and Pakistan's leader immediately left for home.