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| No cross-border terrorism into India from Pak: Iqbal | | UN resolutions on JK have yielded 'no solution' | | NEW DELHI, NOV 8
Pakistan's Minister of Kashmir Affairs, Tahir Iqbal, has challenged New Delhi's oft-repeated statement vis-a-vis cross-border terrorism into India from Pakistan. His pronouncement: There is no cross-border terrorism into India from Pakistan. And his warning: India should not point fingers at Pakistan.
"If you point one finger at us, we will point three fingers at you", Tahir Iqbal asserted in Washington. According to inputs made available to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) by the Washington-based Indian Embassy, Iqbal said more than once: "If you point one finger at us, we will point three fingers at you". Thrice during his address at the Kashmiri-American Council (KAC) on November 6, he called on India to show "some flexibility" and come up with "in-box" solutions, a characterisation that perplexed many among his audience. The consensus was that by "in-box" solutions, the Pakistani Minister meant "out-of-box" solutions that President, Gen. Parvez Musharraf, has often called for.
The government of India has been informed that Tahir Iqbal has been in the United States with two members of the Legislative Council of Pakistan ocupied Kashmir (PoK) for nearly two weeks, but it was not clear what they have ben doing. Iqbal's loaded recommendation: Establishment of a single government for the entire State of Jammu and Kashmir with internal autonomy except for defence, foreign affairs and currency. He did not say whose responsibility the three subjects--defence, foreign affairs and currency--would or should be.
Significant, indeed, was the Pakistani Minister's viewpoint: "We should not wait another 60 years considering that the UN resolution passed 60 years ago have produced no solution of the Kashmir dispute". He said that three wars had been fought and billions of rupees had been spent on weapons that could be spent on the welfare of the people if the Kashmir dispute were settled.
He warned that as India and Pakistan were nuclear weapon states, there could be a nuclear "flashpoint" next time, adding ominously: "We don't want to use nukes first." He said that a nuclear war could occur as the result of an "error."
Tahir Iqbal told the meeting, which included a mixed bag of journalists and others, that Gen Musharraf had "laid his cards on the table" and it was now time for India to respond. He also called for the "demilitarisation" of Kashmir on both sides of the Line of Control. "We are willing to do so entirely," declared Iqbal. If that was not acceptable to India, he added, then there should be demilitarisation along the Line of Control and if even that was not acceptable, then troops should be pulled out from cites in Indian Kashmir.
The US-based Kashmiri expatriate, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, who is the executive director of the Kashmir-American Council, was reported to have played a key role in arranging the get-together for the Pakistani Minister of Kashmir Affairs. Tahir Iqbal was welcomed to the KAC by Dr Fai. Two members of the PoK Council accompanying the Pak Minister are TahirPervez and Raja Iftikhar.
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