January 31, 2003	Friday	Ziqa’ad 27, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 30: Pakistan rejected on Thursday a claim by a US State Department official that “militant incursions” into Indian-held Kashmir across the disputed border in the divided state were still continuing.

“We have already made it clear that no such infiltration is taking place and the claim by an official who is not ready to disclose his identity cannot be accurate,” foreign office spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan told AFP.

A state department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said in Washington on Wednesday that “Islamic militants” were still crossing the Line of Control that divides the Pakistani and Indian sides of Kashmir.

“It is happening and it is not being stopped, and this is the main concern,” the official said after Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri met Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The official said the incursions were significantly reduced last year following US pressure and pledges by President Pervez Musharraf to stop infiltration into Indian-held Kashmir.

“It was very, very noticeable, the numbers went way down,” said the official, suggesting incursions had crept back up following a lack of counter-concessions by India.

The foreign office spokesman said the “freedom struggle in Indian occupied Kashmir” was not new but had been give a new twist in the post-Sept 11 scenario.

“Pakistan’s stand is very clear and categoric that the Line of Control should be monitored by the UN observers ... to verify these claims,” Khan said.

“These infiltration claims are just absurd and are made from time to time and we reject them. There is no infiltration.”

Mr Musharraf, who pledged to top US officials in June last year to permanently halt the incursions, told AFP in August that it was possible some rouge elements were crossing into Indian occupied territory but denied there were large-scale or state-sponsored incursions.