WSN Service

NEW DELHI: There has been a sudden worsening of Indo-Pak relations. The situation remains unrelieved even as a special envoy of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif suddenly came here with a message for the Indian Prime Minister.

Envoy Shahrayar Khan said his visit was the first formal contact with the new Indian govt. He said he had been sent by Sharif in all sincerity and that there was no clement of public posturing as was made out by a section of the Indian media.

Media had expressed surprise at the visit and had described it as a public relations exercise aimed at addressing the western gallery where the Kashmir issue was hutting up. Khan said bilateral relations between India and Pakistan was one aspect of the ties between the two countries the implication being that raising of the Kashmir issue in various for a fell in the category of other elements in international sphere

India media thought that Pakistan by sending the envoy to India wanted to convey a message to the western countries particularly on the eve of the Commonwealth Summit and the U.N. General Assembly that its channels with India were open to resolve the Kashmir issue. The attempt is to mobilize international support on Pakistan’s stand on Kashmir according to Indian media.

Pakistan’s alleged meddling in Kashmir and Punjab was a hot subject of public discussion in India last week. Prime Minister Narasimha Rao in his Independence Day speech warned Pakistan to stop fanning terrorism and secessionism and said India did not need any mediators to solve the Kashmir issue. Rao at a later function even talked of war..

Defence Minister Shard Pawar accused Pakistan of continuously trying to disturb peace in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir by sending trained militants. Anti-National Forces he said were trying to create disturbances in the border states and to weaken the morale of the armed forces He said a delegation of the Press Council of India had exposed false propaganda about the Indian armed forces’ alleged excesses on the people of Kashmir.

Pressure is mounting from the Brahamanic establishment to attack Pakistan on the ground that militants’ training camps needed to be smashed. BJP general secretary Krishan Lal Sharma gave a public call to the govt to take action against Pakistan accordingly. Akali Dal (Mann) on the other hand opposed war hysteria against Pakistan and said the party would not allow Punjab to be converted into a theater of war and destruction Simranjit Singh Mann asked the Indian govt to withdraw its armed forces from Punjab and sign a no war pact with Pakistan.

Meanwhile chief of the Indian Army Staff General S.F. Rodrigues will visit U.S. from August 18 to August 31.

President Bush’s stand that U.S. stood for encouraging Indo-Pak rapprochement and the adoption of confidence-building measures and other concrete steps to moderate their military competition has been noted here in diplomatic circles as a positive development. President Bush further said that in South Asia as else where we strongly believe that security is best served by solving disputes through negotiations rather’ than military pressure

India complained that Pakistan troops had continued intermittent firing at several forward areas in Rajouri and Poonch sectors in the past 15 days causing considerable tension among people living there. The situation according to Indian defence sources was under control and the Indian side was returning the fire.

Article extracted from this publication >> August 23, 1991