NEW DELHI: India Sunday strongly condemned Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s statement renewing the plebiscite demand in Kashmir and said it was ready to furnish further evidence to Islamabad about its “nefarious designs” in the state,

Bhutto’s statement and a resolution on Kashmir moved in the joint session of parliament by foreign minister Sahabzada Yaqub Khan Saturday constituted an “unacceptable interference in the affairs of India,” an external affairs ministry spokesman said at a press briefing

The spokesman rejected the Pakistani claim that India had not furnished any proof of the Pakistani involvement in Kashmir.

He reiterated’ that enough evidence had been furnished to Pakistan and other countries to prove conclusively that terrorist elements in Jammu and Kashmir were directly aided and abetted by hostile elements operating from the Pakistani territory.

“We are prepared to furnish further evidence to the Pakistan government about the anti-Indian forces operating from the Pakistani soil,” he stressed.

While reiterating India’s firm resolve to repulse any untoward and unwarranted incursions into its territory, the spokesman urged the Bhutto government to adopt the path of peace as envisaged in the 1972 Shimla agreement and to resist provocative actions.

Indian cautioned Pakistan that any attempt to dilute the Shimla agreement might lead to situations which neither of the two countries would wish.

The Indian government strongly objected to Bhutto’s address to the joint session of parliament in which she claimed that the Kashmiris had never accepted Indian “occupation and struggled against it with determination.”

The spokesman, however said, “we are encouraged to note that Ms Bhutto has advised her own: people against the folly of using unwise acts and words.”

“We wish the government of Pakistan would translate this advice into its own action on the ground,” the spokesman said.

He stressed that all the statements and actions of the Indian government showed its firm desire and earnest resolve to usher in an era of cooperation and friendship in the south Asian region. “We would urge the government of Pakistan to respond positively to ‘our stated resolve.”

The spokesman recalled that during Sahabzada Yaqub Khan’s visit to New Delhi last month the external affairs Minister, IK Gujral, had drawn his attention to the threat of Amanullah Khan, leader of the so called’ Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, to send 10,000 commandos across the international border.

“We had pointed out to Sahabzada Yaqub Khan that this and other hyperbolic rhetoric was bound to inflame passions and prompt hot heads and other elements in Pakistan to undertake rash and dangerous missions,” the spokesman said,

The events of February 5 when about 100 Pakistanis illegally crossed into the Indian Territory proved that “our forebodings were well founded,” the spokesman said

Article extracted from this publication >> February 16, 1990