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India, Pakistan Resume Peace Talks As Blasts Rock Kashmir
New Delhi (AFP) Nov 14, 2006 Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan resumed peace talks Tuesday with terrorism high on the agenda as pro-Pakistan guerrillas carried out two attacks injuring 28 people in revolt-hit Kashmir. The Hizbul Mujahideen, the main militant group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, said it detonated a car packed with explosives outside a Indian military camp in the region's summer capital Srinagar, injuring nine security men and 10 civilians. The group, in telephone calls to news outlets, also claimed responsibility for a roadside bomb that critically injured four soldiers and five civilians in the north of Indian Kashmir. But in New Delhi, India's foriegn ministry described the first of two days of talks between Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and his Pakistani counterpart Riaz Mohammed Khan as "very extensive and constructive". "The two sides discussed the menace of terrorism and the proposed joint mechanism (to fight the scourge) as well as Jammu and Kashmir," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said. The diplomats also reviewed confidence-building measures "such as travel, civilian prisoners, non-conventional and conventional security issues and economic and commercial issues". The New Delhi talks were the first since India put the peace process on hold after July's commuter train blasts in Mumbai in which 186 people died and over 800 were wounded. Musharraf and Singh agreed two months ago to set up an anti-terror mechanism after the Mumbai bombings that India blamed on Pakistan's shadowy spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Both foreign secretaries discussed "follow-up action," Sarna said. India has also accused Pakistan of arming and training militants to fight in Kashmir which is divided between the two but claimed in full by both. Islamabad denies the charges. The two sides have put in place a slew of trust-building measures such as more travel links since the peace process began nearly three years although they have made no progress on the main issue of Kashmir. The Pakistani foreign secretary also called on Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee who "welcomed the resumption of the dialogue process, which has changed the relationship (between the neighbours)," Sarna said. Mukherjee last week said India would ask Pakistan to honour previous commitments to halt militant attacks on Indian soil. "The main question is not whether the joint terror mechanism will deliver. It is about India's ability to construct a framework of risks and rewards to Pakistan on cross-border terrorism," strategic affairs editor C. Raja Mohan wrote in the Indian Express newspaper. The newspaper said however that the Mumbai blasts would not be on the agenda because India had "little yet in terms of concrete evidence" against Pakistan. The officials were also expected to discuss proposed demilitarisation of Kashmir's Siachen glacier -- the world's highest battlefield -- and demarcation of a contested marsh on India's western border. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said Monday a swift deal on Siachen was possible. "Given the political will, we have narrowed down our differences enough for us to have a decision on Siachen within a matter of days," he said. But India, which has held strategic peaks on the 6,300-metre (20,700-foot) glacier since 1987 and has refused to withdraw troops, appears sceptical. India wants troop positions marked out in case Pakistan moves its soldiers in after a withdrawal. Islamabad fears writing down the positions would be tacit acceptance of India's claims to Siachen.
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Suicide Bomb At Pakistan Army Base Kills 42
Peshawar, Pakistan (AFP) Nov 08, 2006A suicide bomber killed at least 42 soldiers at an army base in northwest Pakistan Wednesday, in what appears to be a revenge attack for a missile strike against an Al-Qaeda training camp, officials said. Witnesses said the huge explosion at Dargai in North West Frontier Province sowed panic, and left body parts and shredded clothing scattered across a parade ground where trainee soldiers had gathered for morning assembly. |
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