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India cooling war rhetoric, says it is open to dialogue if Pakistan sheds `anti-India mentality'

By Beth Duff-Brown, Associated Press, 1/1/2002 15:24

NEW DELHI, India (AP) In a cooling down of the war rhetoric between the South Asian rivals, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said Tuesday that his country was open to dialogue with Pakistan if it sheds its ''anti-India mentality.''

Despite a heavy exchange of gunfire overnight across the border of disputed Kashmir and deadly attacks by suspected Islamic militants, India and Pakistan upheld their New Year's tradition of exchanging lists of their civilian nuclear facilities, traded every year to prevent attack on the installations. And India eased a new ban on overflights to allow two Pakistani planes to enter its airspace.

Meanwhile, Pakistan said a gathering of South Asian leaders this week in Nepal could bring some easing of tensions, even though India has refused to hold any direct talks on the crisis at the summit.

Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will both attend the Friday-Sunday meeting of seven regional leaders, and the two countries' foreign ministers will be at a preliminary gathering on Wednesday and Thursday. A Vajpayee spokesman, Ashok Tandon, said ''no meeting is planned with Pakistan at any level.''

But a Pakistani government spokesman, Ashfaq Ahmad Gondal, said a meeting of foreign ministers ''cannot be ruled out.'' And he suggested Vajpayee and Musharraf would have no choice but to interact at the resort lodge where the gathering is taking place. ''There is no scheduled meeting, but what else is the retreat?'' he said. ''When niceties are exchanged, it will be the beginning of something more positive.''

British Prime Minister Tony Blair will visit Pakistan on Monday in an effort to defuse tensions, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said Tuesday. A spokesman for Blair's office said he couldn't confirm the visit.

There was gunfire overnight between troops on both sides of the Line of Control which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Thousands of civilians have fled their homes on both sides of the line.

The Indian-controlled part of Kashmir saw a number of attacks by Islamic militants. Gunmen attacked army vehicles Tuesday night 45 miles north of Srinigar, killing two soldiers and wounding five, officials said. The night before, six Hindu civilians were shot and killed in a midnight attack on a remote village, police said, and six policemen and three other civilians were killed in several other attacks in the area. Two soldiers were also killed in India's border Punjab state in an attack by suspected militants.

India has rejected several Pakistani offers for talks over the past week or so, saying no dialogue was possible until Pakistan stopped supporting secessionist terrorists in Kashmir.

Vajpayee took a milder tone in his annual New Year's address, though he still called on Pakistan to halt ''cross-border terrorism'' a reference to the anti-India Islamic militant groups that New Delhi says Pakistan supports in a ''proxy war'' against it.

''Shed your anti-India mentality and take effective steps to stop cross-border terrorism, and you will find India willing to walk more than half the distance to work closely with Pakistan to resolve, through dialogue, any issue, including the contentious issue of Jammu and Kashmir,'' Vajpayee said.

After Pakistan arrested a key militant leader accused by India of masterminding a Dec. 13 attack on India's Parliament, Vajpayee said he welcomed moves by Pakistan to fight terrorism, but warned Indians to be prepared for further terrorist strikes. ''India does not want war,'' he said, addressing Indians. ''I would like you to be prepared for any eventuality.''

After the Parliament attack, the two countries have massed their largest buildup of troops along their border since their 1971 war. Pakistan denies India's claims that it sponsored the attack, which left nine Indians and the five attackers dead.

India also says that Pakistan backs Islamic militants battling Indian rule in Kashmir the divided Himalayan territory that has been the cause of two of the countries' three wars since 1947. Islamabad says its support for the groups is only political.

On Sunday, Pakistan arrested the leader of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, one of two militant groups India blames for the Parliament attack. Pakistani police say they have rounded up around 30 members of the groups.

Vajpayee spokesman Tandon called the arrest of the leader ''a step in the right direction.''

Pakistan's Khan said Tuesday his government had received from India a list of 20 alleged terrorists New Delhi wants arrested and handed over. But Khan said no action would be taken until India provided evidence against them.

Despite the tensions, India and Pakistan exchanged lists of their nuclear power stations as they have done annually for 11 years under an agreement barring attacks on the facilities. The list gives the geographical location of each station 10 on India's list and six on Pakistan's according to an Indian Foreign Ministry official.

Bus, train and plane transportation between the neighbors has been cut off. But on Tuesday, India also allowed two planes from Pakistan International Airlines to enter its airspace to fly Pakistanis out if New Delhi and the port city of Mumbai, a PIA spokesman said.

The airline asked India to allow the flights because dozens of Pakistanis weren't able to get out of India by Dec. 31 the deadline for closing the border, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

-- Anonymous, January 01, 2002