Pakistan admits crossing Kashmir line
The Pakistani authorities have acknowledged for the first time that their regular troops have been deployed on India's side of the Line of Control during the conflict over Kashmir,
The admission came as Pakistani backed forces prepared to withdraw from the last of their positions in Indian-administered Kashmir.
General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan Army Chief: "It's a great military success" Pakistan army chief General Pervez Musharraf, who is visiting the frontline area, told the BBC in an interview that there had been what he called "occasional and aggressive patrolling" by Pakistani troops on the Indian side of the line.
He said this had been done to preempt any possible Indian attack on Pakistan.
Mike Wooldridge: "This is a war that has crept up on the world"
India has maintained throughout that its soldiers have been mainly fighting Pakistani troops, rather than militants.
In the interview, General Musharraf accused India of trying to hide the true extent of the casualties it had suffered in the fighting, but said he hoped the withdrawal of the insurgents would be completed by Saturday.
Owen Bennett-Jones: "This admission takes us onto new territory"
India has confirmed that it is extending the original deadline of Friday.
Army spokesman Colonel Bikram Singh said: "The deadline, on the request of the Pakistani authorities, has been extended by another 24 hours- that is up to first light on 17 July."
Indian army officials said troops were monitoring the withdrawal of forces to the Pakistani side of the Line of Control dividing the mountainous territory.
Fighting between Pakistani-backed forces and Indian troops in Indian administered Kashmir has claimed more than 1,000 lives over the past two months.
The BBC's Daniel Lak in Delhi: "A durable peace in Kashmir is a long way off" The two sides are now engaged in a bitter dispute over the return of the bodies of men killed in the fighting.
India says that it has the bodies of a number of Pakistani soldiers, but that Islamabad will not take them back, because it fears this would amount to an admission that regular Pakistani forces had died inside Indian territory.
Pakistan says India is playing politics with the dead.
The BBC's Daniel Lak in Delhi says the dispute demonstrates that diplomacy stands little chance of resolving the Kashmir dispute in the near future.
Human rights 'abuses'
Both countries have come under fire from an international human rights group, which has accused them of carrying out widespread human rights abuses in Kashmir.
Human Rights Watch said repression and abuse had been a critical factor in keeping the conflict alive.
It accused Pakistani-backed militants of massacring Hindu civilians, and Indian security forces of summary executions, rape and torture.
Patricia Gossman, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, said: "Unless there is pressure on both India and Pakistan to end the abuses, international diplomacy to defuse the conflict is bound to fail."
news.bbc.co.uk |
