 |
||
|
||
|
||
The United States is frustrated with Pakistan's failure to stop Islamic militants from crossing into Indian- controlled Kashmir (news - web sites), a senior State Department official said Friday.
"The United States has, for some time, urged the Pakistani government to stop all infiltration across the Line of Control," Richard Haass, director of policy planning for the State Department, told Indian television channels early Friday in a videoconference from Washington.
"To be honest, we have not succeeded and we are disappointed and frustrated with that reality," he said.
In Pakistan, the government denied that militants cross into Indian- controlled territory.
"No infiltration is taking place from our side into the Indian Occupied Kashmir," Pakistan's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said. "Our claim can be verified by the United Nations (news - web sites) if they would just increase the presence of their military observers on both sides of the border in Kashmir."
India's statement came after angry statements from Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha, who has said Pakistan is a "fit case" for preemptive strikes, drawing a parallel with the U.S.-led war against Iraq (news - web sites).
It was an unusual admission from the United States, which last year succeeded in pulling the two countries from the brink of war after Pakistan promised an end to cross-border strikes by militants.
The statement coincided with the visit of Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Kashmir, where he was scheduled address the first public meeting by an Indian head of government in 16 years.
"It's simply a fact of life for the Pakistanis that our relationship with them will never improve beyond a certain point unless this issue is adequately addressed," Haas said. "It will continue to be a major diplomatic reality for the United States."
Kashmir is the focus of a 13-year
battle by Islamic militants to merge the region with neighboring
Pakistan or make it independent. More than 61,000 people, most of
them civilians, have died during the fighting since 1989.
|
||
|
||
|
||