August 24, 2002	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Saani 14, 1423

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NEW DELHI, Aug 23: Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes denied Islamabad’s claim on Friday that Indian troops, assisted by warplanes, had targeted a key Pakistani post close to the Kargil region.

“Resorting to falsehood has become a habit and truth should come to light,” Mr Fernandes told reporters. He added, however, that India’s running problems with Pakistan would not deter New Delhi’s participation in the next Saarc summit being scheduled in Islamabad between Jan 5 and 20.

Asked if Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee would visit Pakistan for the summit, Mr Fernandes said: “We will go. Even during the time of tension nations sit together in international fora like the UN”.

Asked about the chances of resuming talks with Pakistan, Mr Fernandes said that talks would take place “only when Pakistan fulfils all its promises.”

“Pakistan should stop helping trans-border terrorism and dismantle the terrorist camps,” he said, adding that the infiltration was still continuing and both the sides were suffering casualties.

In reply to a question if Indian troops did or would cross the LoC to attain any of their objectives, Mr Fernandes said: “LoC was not crossed even during Kargil”. He was referring to the 1999 standoff close to the venue of the current alleged incident.

While almost everyone in New Delhi, barring a retired Indian general, asserted there had been no major incident at Pakistan’s Gultari post, an Indian defence ministry spokesman said there was firing, in fact, from the opposite side.

The spokesman said Pakistani troops launched unprovoked heavy artillery shelling on Indian positions across the Line of Control in Dras sector. His remarks came even as Islamabad accused India of carrying out air and land attacks on one of its military posts.

“Pakistani troops opened fire with heavy guns, forcing our troops to retaliate but there are no casualties on our side,” the defence ministry spokesman told reporters.

The spokesman denied Pakistani charge that Indian troops overnight carried out attacks on a Pakistani post in which Indian Air Force planes were also used.

India’s external affairs ministry, in a statement, termed completely false and baseless reports from Islamabad that Indian soldiers had been killed near Kargil.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Nirupama Rao alleged that Pakistan was only trying to detract attention from US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage’s visit to India.

Ms Rao, who is accompanying External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha to Nepal, said, “there is no truth in Pakistan’s claim. There was no such incident yesterday and there has been no loss of life or property.”

Retired General V.R. Raghavan, who once headed Indian troops in Kargil region and was director of military operations, however, said that there had been some reports of troops, from both sides, trying to evict each other from positions of advantage.

Gen Raghavan, however, said this appeared to be a routine kind of movement.

ISPR chief Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi speaking to Star News about the incident said: “There is incontrovertible evidence on the attack. We will make it public if needed to make our point.”—J.N