Indian PM Man`mohan Singh speaks

APHC leaders’ visit beyond AJK: Pakistan violated bus accord: Singh * Manmohan Singh says there will be no redrawing of boundaries By Iftikhar Gilani NEW DELHI: By allowing leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) to travel beyond Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Islamabad violated the understanding reached between the two countries on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service, said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Replying to a letter from former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee criticising the government’s Pakistan policy, Singh said that the APHC leaders’ visit to AJK using the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus was cleared on the basis of agreed procedures. “That Pakistan decided to invite them to visit Islamabad and other cities in Pakistan violated an understanding on these procedures that had been reached between India and Pakistan,” Singh said in a letter yesterday in response to Vajpayee’s June 15 letter. “It would not be, therefore, correct to state that the authorities on our side had mishandled the visit by the Hurriyat leaders,” Singh said, adding, “passports were issued to Hurriyat leaders who did not have them and made a request for such documents.” The prime minister said there was no room for ambiguity regarding India’s position on Jammu and Kashmir in its discussions with Pakistan, and affirmed New Delhi’s commitment to take the Indo-Pak dialogue process forward while ensuring that India’s vital interests were safeguarded. “I have reiterated on every possible occasion that there can be no redrawing of boundaries. We have also ruled out any role for a third party – either through intervention or as guarantor or as mediators – in any form,” he said in his letter to Vajpayee dated June 20. Noting that the Hurriyat Conference was one of the groups that was outside the electoral process in Jammu and Kashmir, the prime minister said that nevertheless, his government was willing to enter into dialogue with such groups provided they agreed to abjure the path of violence. “Nothing in our actions in the last twelve months has compromised our adherence to this principle,” he said. Home |