June 17, 2002	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 5, 1423

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NEW DELHI, June 16: India and Pakistan on Sunday accused each other of not doing their bit to ease tensions but New Delhi was reportedly allowing its troops home leave in small batches in a welcome slackening of its border alert.

Indian Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani said there would be no resumption of talks with Pakistan unless all the “terrorist camps in Azad Kashmir were first shut down”.

Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi, spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf, on the other hand, was quoted by the Sunday Times of India as saying that while President Musharraf was serious about disarming militias and had already ordered the arrest of 2,000 among them “this talk of Jihadi camps inside Azad Kashmir is sheer propaganda by India”.

He said: “The armies of India and Pakistan are not going to allow anyone to get close to the LoC.”

Besides, addressing the two-day national council meeting of the Samata Party in the Vijaywada city, Defence Minister George Fernandes ruled out any possibility of third-party interference in resolving Indo-Pakistan disputes and reiterated India’s commitment to the Simla agreement for bilateral talks.

Asked if there was any reduction in “infiltration” from across the Line of Control, Mr Advani said: “Reports available with us at least do not indicate anything of this kind.”

There were also reports of Indian and Pakistani troops trading heavy machinegun fire across the Line of Control.

There was heavy firing in the Laam village in the Rajouri sector but there was no damage to life or property, according to one report.