India in bid to mend relations with Pakistan

INDIA unveiled unprecedented proposals to normalise relations with rival Pakistan yesterday, offering to talk with separatist politicians in Kashmir and giving new hope to families divided by five decades of conflict.

But Pakistan said it was disappointed India did not include an offer to negotiate directly with Islamabad over the fate of Kashmir, the Himalayan territory divided between the two South Asian rivals and claimed by both.

The Indian proposals announced by Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha include talks on resuming air and rail links and the new ambition of running buses between the capitals of divided Kashmir.

They were seen as a move to jump-start Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s stalled peace plan with Pakistan and seal his legacy as the man who renewed their friendship.

A Pakistan Foreign Ministry statement said restoring travel links, sports competitions and other people-to-people initiatives would be given serious consideration.

But it said Islamabad was “disappointed” India still refused to discuss what it considers the core issue dividing the two nations: Kashmir, the flashpoint in two of their past wars.

Sinha said Islamabad first had to take significant steps to end the infiltration of Pakistan-based militants into Indian-controlled Kashmir before dialogue on the territory can resume.

Earlier in the day, the Indian government also announced that for the first time in 13 years, it would meet with members of the separatist movement in India’s portion of Kashmir.

The surprise announcements were applauded by some Kashmiris in Srinagar, the capital of the Indian portion of the Himalayan territory. “It’s an astonishing change of heart.

"I can’t figure out what hit them to have made these announcements all of a sudden,” said Kashmiri merchant Mohammad Latif Dar.

"But in a grim reminder of Kashmiris daily trauma, violence continued. Three suspected rebels were killed in a gun battle with Indian soldiers and five people were wounded in cross-border shelling near the Line of Control that divides Kashmir.

India hopes to resume sporting events in a region obsessed with cricket.

The two countries have not played each other in cricket since 1999.