October 20, 2001	Saturday	Shaba'an 2, 1422

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NEW DELHI, Oct 19: India said on Friday it would not go on any adventurist hot pursuit of Kashmiri Mujahideen across the Line of Control.

The focus in fact shifted to the wider agenda on Friday of seeking a new role in Afghanistan in tandem with Russia.

A “joint working group on Afghanistan” between Russia and India concluded on Friday with a call for avoiding the Taliban in a new dispensation, according to an official Indian statement. They agreed that “for peace and stability to return to Afghanistan, it was essential to ensure the establishment of a broad-based independent government, with equitable representation to all ethnic groups which do not radiate extremism and fundamentalism.”

The talks between Indian Foreign Secretary Chokila Iyer and Russia’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Trubnikov will be followed by a visit to Moscow by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on November 4.

The Indian statement said: “Both sides also agreed that in any such future government there can be no place for the Taliban movement. The obscurantist, malevolent, extremist and violent ideologies on which the Taliban is based, will pose substantial danger to the stability of any broad-based multi-ethnic government, adding to providing fillip to terrorism and narcotics-smuggling emanating from Afghanistan.”

As countries in the neighbourhood of Afghanistan, “India and Russia have vital interests in ensuring that such endeavours succeed,” the statement said. As if on cue to make things look a notch easier for Pakistan, Indian Home Minister Lal Krishan Advani refrained from advocating hot pursuit, a phrase he says he has never used, but is widely credited with contemplating.

“I have often been asked whether I am for hot pursuit of terrorist camps across the border. I have always maintained not right now, despite the fact that in international law if one country attacks another then hot pursuit is legitimate.” Advani claimed Pakistan’s involvement in the war against terrorism was of benefit to India.

Tagged to the good news that came in Advani’s remarks to foreign correspondents was a good rumour too - that President Pervez Musharraf could meet Vajpayee if he does go to New York next month. Vajpayee is already scheduled to address the UN General Assembly on November 10, a day after meeting US President George W. Bush in Washington.

An Indian spokesperson said the news of a Musharraf-Vajpayee meeting, apparently coming in a report from Pakistan, was purely hypothetical. There has been no official confirmation if President Musharraf would indeed go to New York. Some diplomats in New Delhi say he could be too pre-occupied with the ongoing war to be able to make the visit.

CEASEFIRE: Advani said India will not propose another ceasefire to Mujahideen in Kashmir but rather defeat them “with a firm hand,” adds AFP.

India in May ended a six-month ceasefire on military operations in Kashmir, saying militants battling New Delhi’s rule had not responded in kind.

“There’s no question of (another) ceasefire,” Advani told AFP. “It (the ceasefire) was in order to give some relief to the people of Kashmir. But the militants never responded positively,” he said.

Advani earlier told a news conference that India was taking a “pro-active” stand against militants, but said New Delhi would not “at the moment” pursue them into Pakistani territory, even though he said such a move would be backed by international law.