Author:
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: February 5, 2002
The Organisation of Islamic Conference
has assured India that it would ask Pakistan to implement its promise to
fight terrorism.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader
Vijay Kumar Malhotra, who led a Parliamentary delegation to Morocco, Tunisia
and Algeria to present the 'real picture' of Indo-Pak ties, said that OIC
Secretary General Abdelouhed Belkeziz told them that he would urge Pakistan
President Pervez Musharraf to implement the assurances he made in his January
12 televised speech.
While condemning violence and terrorism
'in all forms' as 'un-Islamic', leaders and policy makers of the three
countries conveyed to the team their opposition to any armed conflict between
India and Pakistan and favoured a dialogue between the two neighbours on
the Kashmir issue, Malhotra said.
During their visit from January
27, the four-member delegation, which included film actress-turned Member
of Parliament Shabana Azmi, former Indian ambassador to Algeria I S Rathore
and Z H Nadvi, dean of the Jamia Millia Islamia University, 'successfully'
demolished the Pakistani propaganda of a 'civilisational clash', he said.
The team, which met among others
Moroccan King Mohammad VI, would submit a report to External Affairs Minister
Jaswant Singh on Wednesday.
The leaders of the three countries
expressed concern over the growing Indo-Israeli ties, but the delegation
assured them that while New Delhi and Tel Aviv would continue to cooperate
on 'security-related' issues, there will never be any dilution of India's
support to the Palestinian cause.
