October 1, 2002	Tuesday	Rajab 23, 1423

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SRINAGAR, Sept 30: The head of occupied Kashmir’s ruling party said on Monday he supported talks with Pakistan over the fate of the divided province but added current conditions were not right for dialogue.

Omar Abdullah, who would be Kashmir’s chief minister if his National Conference party is re-elected at legislative polls that close Oct 8, said dialogue with Pakistan over Kashmir was “necessary.”

“But for that dialogue Pakistan will have to create conditions necessary for it. I think that nobody will say that these elections have helped the cause for dialogue,” Abdullah, who is India’s junior foreign minister, told reporters in the Himalayan state’s summer capital Srinagar.

Abdullah, echoing remarks from New Delhi, accused Pakistan of trying to disrupt the four-phase assembly elections through Mujahideen blamed for killing 35 pro-poll activists, most of them from the National Conference.

“The people were willing to participate,” Abdullah said of the first two rounds of voting on Sept 16 and 24. “To deny them that right because Pakistan wants to deny them that right is extremely unfair.”—AFP