India rejects Pakistani call to shift heavy weapons from Kashmir

PAKISTAN: India has rejected a Pakistani proposal that all heavy weapons be removed from disputed Kashmir, a Pakistani official said.

However, the two sides agreed that they would not set up new military posts along the heavily militarized frontier, known as the Line of Control, in the Himalayan region.

Senior officials of the nuclear-armed rivals held talks in Islamabad on Thursday on confidence-building measures in conventional weaponry, as part of a peace process aimed at ending a half-century of hostility.

Tariq Usman Haider, head of the Pakistan delegation, said Pakistan proposed moving all heavy weapons above 120mm caliber from Jammu and Kashmir. India did not accept the proposal, saying it was its sovereign right to decide where to deploy its forces, he said.

"We have made a very serious and sincere proposal to reduce the threat along the Line of Control, and that is ... redeployment by both sides of artillery, guns, rockets and mortars above 120mm," he told reporters.

"The Indian side was not ready to accept this," he said.

At an earlier joint news conference, Dilip Sinha, chief of the Indian delegation, was asked about Pakistan's hope for demilitarization in Kashmir, and he stressed that deployment of troops was India's "sovereign" decision.

"We have made our position quite clear that the deployment of force in any part of India is the sovereign right of the country and it is taken in conjunction with the security situation," Sinha said.

Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over Kashmir, which is divided between them but claimed by both. India accuses Pakistan of helping Islamic militants to cross the frontier to launch attacks on Indian security forces in Kashmir. Pakistan denies it.

Thursday's talks follow two days of discussions over nuclear-confidence-building measures - part of a wide-ranging dialogue initiated in early 2004 to try to resolve their long-standing difference over Kashmir and other issues.

Haider said that at the talks on nuclear confidence-building, the two sides exchanged four drafts for an agreement aimed at preventing any unauthorized or accidental use of nuclear weapons.

He criticized a deal U.S. President George W. Bush signed with India last month that would provide New Delhi with civilian nuclear technology.

"We have made it plain, our feeling is that this is not a positive development in terms of strategic stability," Haider said. "We will certainly maintain our credible deterrent, whatever developments may take place across our border." Islamabad, Friday, AP