October 5, 2002	Saturday	Rajab 27, 1423

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NEW DELHI, Oct 4: India said on Friday that successful elections in Indian-administered Kashmir would not automatically pave the way for resumption of dialogue over the disputed Himalayan state with arch-rival Pakistan.

Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal told a press conference that it was “too premature” to expect New Delhi to rush into talks with Islamabad.

“We have always maintained that Pakistan must end cross-border terrorism to clear all obstacles for a dialogue,” he said.

India has intimated that should the staggered elections pass off relatively successfully, the basis would be laid for a possible resumption of dialogue with Pakistan.

The polling period has, however, been marked by an explosion of violence, with more than 650 people killed in the disputed state since the vote was called on Aug 2.

But India has hailed what it claims more than 40 per cent turnout recorded in most of the districts that have voted, as a victory over Pakistan, which it accuses of trying to disrupt the vote.

Foreign diplomats had expressed the cautious hope that elections in occupied Kashmir could prove a “litmus test” for the restoration of dialogue and put a seal of normalcy on Indo-Pakistan ties.

“Pakistan has failed all tests, litmus or otherwise. The third phase of polling in Kashmir has seen much more violent than the first two rounds because it is an expression of Pakistan’s growing desperation,” claimed Sibal.

Asked if India would come under international pressure to engage in dialogue with Pakistan once the vote is over, Sibal said that the use of the word “pressure” implied that India was currently behaving in an unreasonable fashion.

“I do not see how successful elections in Kashmir puts us under any international pressure to resume dialogue with Pakistan,” he said.

CANDIDATE ATTACKED: A leading candidate in Indian Kashmir’s turbulent elections escaped unhurt on Friday when suspected Muslim guerillas exploded a bomb near a rally she was addressing, police said.

Mehbooba Mufti, leader of the pro-India People’s Democratic Party, is seen as the most popular candidate in the election after the head of the ruling National Conference Omar Abdullah.

She was addressing a rally in Doda district in the south of Jammu and Kashmir state, when the bomb exploded some distance away. It was not clear whether it was aimed at her.

13 KILLED: Indian security forces shot dead 11 Muslim militants, while a civilian and a pro-India political worker were killed by guerillas in Indian-administered Kashmir overnight and Friday, police said.

Four of the militants were killed in separate overnight encounters district of Kupwara, a police spokesman said.

Five other militants were shot dead overnight and Friday in neighbouring Baramulla district, police said.

Two of the slain militants were Pakistanis, a police spokesman claimed.

In the southern Kashmir district of Udhampur, security forces shot dead two militants in the village of Chasana.—Reuters/AFP