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| US blessed moves raise hope about peace in J&K | | |
ABID SHAH
NEW DELHI, DEC 11: India is coming under the pressure of increased expectations on the part of Washington to bring Kashmir to peace by talking to Pakistan and separatists in the Valley. Though New Delhi has thus far not openly reacted to US insistence in this regard, yet the Jammu visit of Union Home Secretary GK Pillai today has come at a time when the international moves to bring India and Pakistan to talking terms once again have intensified.
As Union Home Secretary met Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today in Jammu which is the winter Capital of the Jammu and Kashmir for about 45 minutes, hope about significant reduction of troops and intensification of talks with Hurriyat leaders have been heightening.
After Pillai’s return to Delhi, the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram is expected to visit Jammu for a final decision about these crucial aspects of Centre’s peace moves for J&K.
Given the high level of expectations the entire process is being kept under wraps where the understating at the highest diplomatic level is to avoid and pre-empt any miscarriage of the J&K peace process. Americans are working overtime on Pakistan to convince the civil and military leaderships in Islamabad about the futility of continuing with their hard stance vis-à-vis India.
An indication of this has come through an article by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari published on Wednesday in New York Times where Zardari described himself as a victim of terrorism at a personal level since he lost his wife nearly two years ago in a terrorist attack. He talks at length about the outrage in India in the wake of last year’s attack on Mumbai. And to affirm that he was duty bound and also personally inclined to finish terror, he cited Sunday’s (December 6) arrests made in his country as a follow up to the arrest of David Coleman Headley in America for planning attacks on India.
A day after the publication of this article the US States Department spokesman PJ Corwley stressed the significance of Kashmir issue for both India and Pakistan while admitting that US has been discussing the issue with both the countries though separately without getting directly involved at any stage. He said that it was for India, Pakistan and leaders of Kashmir to sort out the issue.
Though the External Affairs Ministry here has been silent about such loud thinking about Kashmir in the United States, efforts to not to betray the US desire are on. Pillai’s visit to the Valley is an indication of this though it comes after the visits of Chidambaram and the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance leader Sonia Gandhi though not necessarily in an overt effort to strike a peace deal with pro-Pakistan and separatist Hurriyat leaders. As the chain of such visits is expected to continue, its outcome is being closely watched whose contours would be disclosed as per Chidambaram’s promise once they take some recognisable and definitive shape.
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