Pakistan Accused of Breaking Cease-Fire

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Posted on Tue, Jan. 18, 2005

India: Pakistan Fires Across Kashmir Line

Associated Press

NEW DELHI - India accused Pakistani soldiers Tuesday of firing mortar shells across the dividing line in Kashmir in the first violation of a 14-month cease-fire between the South Asian nuclear-armed rivals.

The cease-fire was the longest since an insurgent campaign in the divided Himalayan province began in 1989. Both countries claim the mainly Muslim, former princely state in its entirety and have fought two wars over it.

A senior army official said there were no casualties on the Indian side of the heavily militarized frontier known as the Line of Control, and Indian troops had not retaliated.

“It certainly is a violation of the cease-fire. We have exercised full restraint,” Maj. Gen. Deepak Summanwar told the private NDTV news channel. “Seven to eight rounds of mortars were fired. All our patrols and ambushes have been alerted.”

The cease-fire was agreed to in November 2003.

Indian military officials in Kashmir said the firing may have been carried out to provide cover to a batch of Islamic militants crossing into the Indian side of Kashmir from the Pakistan-controlled part of the Himalayan region.

Rebels based in Pakistan routinely cross over to India to wage attacks as part of their campaign to carve out a separate homeland or merge the Indian-controlled area into Pakistan.

Routine firing by both sides began in 1989

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/breaking_news/10673105.htm

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Re: Pakistan Accused of Breaking Cease-Fire

Pakistan seeks help in dam row

Pakistan says it is seeking arbitration in a dispute with India over a controversial dam being built in Indian-administered Kashmir.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the World Bank had been asked to intervene.

He accused India of refusing to budge in talks on the dam, which Pakistan says breaches a shared water treaty.

India called the Pakistani move unjustified. The BBC’s Paul Anderson in Islamabad says the dispute is bound to be a setback to peace talks.

The two sides met to discuss the planned dam in early January, but no progress was made.

‘Inordinate delays’

The Baglihar dam and hydro-electric power project is being built by India over the Chenab river that flows from Indian-administered Kashmir into Pakistan.

Islamabad says the dam will obstruct the flow of water into Pakistan.

It says the project violates a deal brokered by the World Bank in 1960 for sharing river water between the two countries.

Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said India wanted to present the dam as a fait accompli.

“India has inordinately delayed the process… and pressed ahead with the construction of the dam in violation of the treaty, so we have taken the decision to approach the World Bank,” he said.

Pakistan wanted the World Bank to appoint a neutral expert, he said.

India, meanwhile, insists work on the dam can proceed while wide-ranging peace talks which the two sides started last year continue.

Delhi insists that the project is “strictly within the parameters of the treaty”. It says the dam will not store water or disrupt flows.

“We do not believe that a reference to the World Bank is justified,” foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters in Delhi.

Slow progress

Relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours have improved since last year’s peace initiatives between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and the then Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee.

A number of confidence-building measures have been introduced over the past year, including a resumption of rail, air and bus links and a strengthening of diplomatic ties.

But leaders have yet to negotiate the big obstacles to peace, in particular the dispute about divided Kashmir, over which the nations have fought two wars since independence.

Analysts say that will be the real test of the political will in both nations to find a solution.

Mr Khan said Pakistan’s move should not affect the broader dialogue between the two countries.

But our correspondent says Pakistan and India have been riven by half a century of war, hostility and suspicion, and that might be wishful thinking.

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Re: Pakistan Accused of Breaking Cease-Fire

No violation: Islamabad

ISLAMABAD, JAN. 18. Pakistan tonight said that it has not violated the ceasefire effective on the Line of Control (LoC) since November 2003.

Inter-State Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General, Shaukat Sultan, maintained that Pakistani soldiers had heard some "explosions" on the LoC but these had not emanated from any of them.

He said that Pakistan was committed to maintaining peace on the LoC and would not violate it without provocation from the other side.

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Re: Pakistan Accused of Breaking Cease-Fire

Well that better be true. Last thing either country needs is yet another game of nuclear chicken

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Re: Pakistan Accused of Breaking Cease-Fire

Abay Salman mian khuch likh bhi diya karo... yeh khali copy & paste ka maza nahi ata..