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| Wednesday, 3 December 2003 |
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Indian, Pakistan can start to withdraw from Kashmir- Musharraf LONDON, Tuesday (AFP) If New Delhi agrees, India and Pakistan can begin to pull back their forces from the divided province of Kashmir, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has told the BBC. "If it is acceptable to India, the mutual withdrawal of forces from Kashmir can commence from tomorrow," Musharraf said Monday, speaking on BBC World Servide Radio. "Pakistan has only 50,000 forces in Pakistan Administered Kashmir (PAK) whereas India has over 700,000 troops deployed in India Administered Kashmir (IAK)," Musharraf told the Hindi and Urdu programme. Musharraf called the recent confidence-building measures for normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan a "beginning of the end". In the latest easing of tensions between the two countries, India and Pakistan agreed Monday to resume flights between the two countries from January 1 after a two-year hiatus. The flights will restart three days before Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is slated to be in Pakistan for a seven-nation regional summit. India has linked bilateral progress with Pakistan to a decrease in violence in Kashmir, where an Islamic insurgency has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1989. India charges that Pakistan arms and trains rebels and provides them with artillery cover to sneak across the rugged Himalayan border. Pakistan contends it provides only moral and diplomatic support to an "indigenous" uprising in India's sole Muslim-majority state. But a border ceasefire has so far held for six days, raising hopes in Kashmir that it will eventually translate into changes on the ground. |
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