June 27, 2002	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 15, 1423

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NEW DELHIi, June 26: The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan could hold telephone talks this weekend in a revival of their “hotline diplomacy”, an Indian news group said on Tuesday in a dispatch from Karachi.

However, Pakistan’s acting High Commissioner Jalil Abbas Jilani told Dawn that he had no knowledge of the move if one indeed was afoot.

“I find this news amusing. But I hope and pray that it is true,” Jilani said.

There was no official comment from New Delhi on the report but official sources said the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), headed by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee could meet later on Wednesday to discuss the evolving nature of the standoff with Pakistan.

The India Today magazine’s online newspaper quoted its Karachi correspondent as saying: “It seems that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee may finally submit to the United States for the resolution of the Kashmir issue.”

It quoted an unidentified source in the Pakistan Foreign Ministry as saying that both New Delhi and Islamabad were slowly opening up to the idea as a ‘workable option’ including the suggested phone-call.

“The Newspaper Today has also learnt that Washington has given firm assurances to both India and Pakistan that it is planning to get itself ‘engaged’ in the region. The formal diplomatic brewing is expected to start from August,” the report said.

It quoted American diplomats as saying that US Undersecretary of State Richard Armitage would visit India and Pakistan again in August and unfold a formal ‘plan of action’.

The sources also confided that preceding the high-profile visit of the US envoy, the Bush administration would ensure that the mechanism of checking cross-border infiltration is checked and New Delhi starts pulling back its troops.

Diplomatic sources also say a substantial agreement has already been reached between the two countries to “give diplomacy a chance” by stopping cross-border infiltration for good.

But there were still hurdles, government sources said on Tuesday, adding that severe differences still persisted over the political connotation of the Kashmir dispute and the mechanism to resolve it.

Press Trust of India, in a dispatch from London, quoted Mr Armitage as saying in an interview to Financial Times that Al Qaeda and other militant groups could seek to subvert the rapprochement.

“It is quite clear that Al Qaeda likes to fish in troubled waters such as Kashmir and that it would like nothing better than a splendid war between India and Pakistan.”

Mr Armitage added that the US had “snippets” of information that suggested the Al Qaeda could be operating in Kashmir. Observing that the recent easing of tensions between India and Pakistan remained vulnerable to another terrorist attack in India, he said, “I think it is in everyone’s interest to try to keep Al Qaeda out of Kashmir.”

During his visit to Islamabad Mr Armitage had extracted a pledge from President Musharraf to put a “permanent end to cross- border terrorism.”

Mr Armitage, in the interview published on Tuesday, also ruled out any mediatory role by the US in the resolution of the Kashmir dispute but said it would work behind the scenes to “inspire” a settlement to the problem. “The United States is going to stay involved and I trust our good friends from Britain are as well,” he said.

Maintaining that the US would play the role of a “facilitator”, he said, “In the first instance it is important to stop infiltration and in the second instance to follow through and continue to lower the tensions so both sides can have dialogue.”

The last CCS meeting headed by Mr Vajpayee was held on June 14 immediately after the visit of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.