December 29, 2001	Saturday	Shawwal 13, 1422

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NEW DELHI, Dec 28: In a significant pause in its war rhetoric with Pakistan, India said on Friday that it would allow President Pervez Musharraf to use its airspace to reach Kathmandu for the Saarc summit next week.

Less than 24 hours after both countries announced tit-for-tat punitive measures against each other’s airlines and diplomatic missions, both appeared to

be ready to accommodate the practical difficulties in their way, thus extending the deadline for their required number of diplomats to leave by next week.

“If any request is made for overflying by Pakistan President and his delegation for the Saarc summit, it will be met,” External affairs ministry spokesperson Nirupama Rao told reporters.

She was replying to a question on reports from Islamabad that Gen Musharraf might not attend the Saarc summit from January 4 to 6 in Kathmandu in the wake of India’s decision to ban the use of its airspace by Pakistani aircraft, which might force him to make a long detour.

“In regard to the Saarc summit, we would grant that permission to President Musharraf’s aircraft,” Rao clarified. But doubts still remained, chiefly due to an Indian news agency report, which claimed that the Pakistani president had rejected India’s offer to use its airspace and that he would use an unidentified circuitous route. Sources at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, however, said that Islamabad would accept India’s offer to open its airspace to keep the presidential journey short.

India on Thursday banned Pakistan International Airlines flights over Indian airspace and its use by any Pakistani flights from January 1. The ban is believed to be likely to hit PIA flights to East and South East Asian destinations in view of the circuitous route they now may have to take via China and Thailand instead of cutting across India.

Informed sources in Delhi, however, said Pakistan’s own retaliatory move can also be costly to New Delhi, even more so in the realm of politics where its newly-rediscovered bonhomie with Kabul could suffer as a result.

“In the beginning of this crisis in Afghanistan, India did not ask us to allow them to fly over our airspace to Kabul, but later they did and the permission was granted,” a Pakistani diplomat told Dawn on condition of anonymity. He said withdrawal of this facility now would mean a long detour for Indian planes through Central Asian countries and even Iran for them to reach Afghan destinations.

India has ruled out any talks in Kathmandu between Gen Musharraf and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, but no one is willing to say with any finality that this would not change.

Foreign ministry officials of seven South Asian countries, including India and Pakistan, met on Friday to complete the agenda for a January 4-6 summit in the Nepalese capital.

The presence of officials from New Delhi and Islamabad raised hopes that the summit would go ahead as planned, despite mounting tension between India and Pakistan since a December 13 gun and grenade attack on India’s parliament.

“There has been no change and the programme will continue as planned,” Nepal’s foreign ministry spokesman Pushkar Rajbhandari was quoted by news agencies as saying as he confirmed participation of India and Pakistan at Friday’s meeting.

DISAGREEMENT: Even as it remained locked in a stand-off with Islamabad, confusion was brewing in Delhi over a key issue that largely contributed to the current tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. An Indian newspaper said that Indian intelligence were involved in a potentially embarrassing disagreement with the Delhi police over the identity of a key suspect.

“Did Burger the hijacker of IC 814 come back as Mohammad the suicide attacker of December 13? The Delhi police seem to think so, but no one else is convinced,” said the Hindustan Times on Friday.

It said a number of agencies connected with the investigation into the terrorist attack, including the RAW units, feel that the police’s claim is premature, and possibly incorrect. As far as they are concerned, Burger and Mohammad were two different people with only one thing in common: they were both terrorists.

“The Delhi police’s claim is based solely on the interrogation of Afzal, the Jaish operative arrested for coordinating the parliament attack,” the Times said.

“Apparently, Mohammad had told Afzal that he was Burger, one of the hijackers of IC 814. The hijacker had specifically mentioned that he was in charge of controlling passengers in the Economy Class.”

Another Indian newspaper said on Friday that the United States had passed on to Pakistan relevant intelligence briefings and evidence in the December 13 terrorist attack it received from Indian officials.

“Evidence gathered by India about the involvement of the Lashkar-i-Tayyaba and Jaish-i-Mohammad in the attack on parliament is now in the hands of General Pervez Musharraf,” The Telegraph said in a dispatch from Washington.

“India had shared the evidence with the US, which, in turn, passed it on to Pakistan’s military rulers. This prompted Musharraf, under pressure from Washington and London, to take at least cosmetic action against the two terrorist outfits.”

In view of The Hindustan Times report it was not clear if any brief was given to Washington about the dispute over the identity of a key suspect in the scandalous terrorist attack. Pakistani High Commissioner Ashraf Jehangir Qazi said India had not given any documents on the incident to Islamabad.

This subject is expected to figure the margins of the Saarc talks at the various levels before the actual summit begins on January 4.