NEW DELHI, Aug 12: India on Tuesday rejected President Pervez Musharraf’s proposal for an immediate ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir, but analysts said they were puzzled by what appeared to be a hasty response from New Delhi.
“There is nothing new in the statements issued by Gen Musharraf. They have not been found effective in the past because Pakistan has continued to sponsor terrorism directed against India and provided support to cross-border infiltration,” Indian foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters.
“Once Pakistan-aided terrorists stop crossing the LoC, the level of firing will naturally go down,” he added.
Analysts said the Indian response seemed to be self-defeating since it was New Delhi that had accused Pakistan in the past of providing fire cover to enable infiltrators to cross over.
“If there is a ceasefire, it is the cross-border movement that will be hindered, if Indian accusations of covering fire are true,” one observer said.
Mr Sarna also evidently responded to Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri’s comments to an Indian TV channel on Monday in which he had said it was not possible to 100 per cent stop cross-border movement. Mr Kasuri had cited the example of the United States which had failed to check illegal movement of immigrants from Mexico.
“We are also disappointed by statements emanating from the Pakistani leadership that they have done all they could in stopping cross-border terrorism,” Mr Sarna said.
“There is nothing new in these suggestions,” Mr Sarna said about remarks made by Gen Musharraf to visiting Indian parliamentarians and journalists on Tuesday.
“Instead of propagandist statements, Pakistan should take effective and long-term oriented measures to dismantle the infrastructure of support to terrorism,” he said. Gen Musharraf proposed a ceasefire along the LoC and offered to “facilitate” a truce in Jammu and Kashmir if India stopped “atrocities” in the state.
