Author: Press Trust of India
Publication: ExpressIndia.com
Date: February 21, 2007
URL: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=81792
Cautioning against any 'quick-fix' solution
to the Jammu and Kashmir issue, the main opposition BJP told Pakistan that
people of India would not accept any surrender on Kashmir.
Senior BJP leader L K Advani told visiting
Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, who met him at his residence
here, that progress should also be made on other issues that are part of the
composite dialogue process.
"There are eight issues in the ongoing
composite dialogue process between India and Pakistan. These pertain to enhancing
trade and economic cooperation, people-to-people contacts and specific confidence-building
measures, besides Jammu and Kashmir. Let us, therefore, make progress on all
these various issues, without attempting to arrive at a quick-fix solution
to the J and K issue," he remarked.
The BJP leader, however, said Kashmir is seen
by the Indian people as one of the two most important issues between the two
countries.
"(From the point of view of the Indian
people) the two most important issues affecting Indo-Pak relations are cross-border
terrorism and Jammu and Kashmir. Our people will not accept any compromise
on terrorism or any surrender on Jammu and Kashmir," a party statement
quoted Advani as telling Kasuri.
He, however, reaffirmed his party's commitment
to the continuation of the peace process on a principled basis whether in
opposition or in Government.
Advani told Kasuri that Islamabad should honour
its 2004 commitment to dismantle terror camps there.
"Issues relating to Indo-Pak relations
are different. Even the common man in India is conscious of most problems
between our two countries and has a definite viewpoint on how to normalise
bilateral relations. Therefore, whichever Government is in office, it must
take decisions keeping in mind how the people react," the BJP leader
said.
Advani, who last week hailed Shivratri celebrations
at Katasraj temples in Pakistan as a "good sign", appreciated Islamabad
for having invited 150 pilgrims from India to the sacred site near Lahore.
In his comments at a news conference, BJP
spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad demanded that Pakistan should extradite to India
Dawood Ibrahim, wanted in connection with the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai.
"When Kasuri is here, we would like to
demand that Pakistan hand over Dawood to India," he said.
Prasad also flayed a Pakistani assembly resolution
that called for a joint investigation in the Samjhauta Express bombings.
He rejected as "laughable" and "baseless"
news reports in Pakistan that Hindu outfits could be behind the Samjhauta
attack. "We would like our Government also to take note of them and reject
them outrightly," he said.