ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is “anxious” to maintain cordial relations with India and ready to discuss any mechanism that will prevent recurrence of incidents on the line of control in Jammu and Kashmir, a foreign office spokesman said here on Thursday.
“We will be happy to discuss any mechanism for restraint,” we spokesman said adding. We are doing everything possible to check those (Pakistanis from staging demonstrations on the line of control in Kashmir.)
Asked at a press briefing whether Indian troops across the line of control were on “high alert” the spokesman said an army that was “cracking down” on demonstrators had to be on such a state of alert.
Responding to another question, he said, “I do not see a war Scenario at all. Pakistan does not seek any confrontation with India,”
The “Indian threat is constantly being reviewed by us at the highest level,” he added.
The spokesman said two sets of hotlines were working round the clock between the foreign secretaries and the directors of military intelligence of the two countries. This he felt, would avert any misunderstanding,
Asked whether Pakistan proposed to raise the Kashmir issue at the United Nations, the spokesman said, “‘we are keeping all options open.” He added that such decisions had to be taken with “deliberate care.”
Referring to last week’s Chakothi incident he said the local authorities had tried “hard” to prevent the demonstrators from crossing the line. He claimed that an officer of the Pakistani army had warned them, “again and again” not to cross.
But a group of young men numbering 30 to 50 had refused to listen and decided to go ahead.
He said the Indian troops should have arrested those who had crossed the line of control instead of opening fire.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 23, 1990
