ISLAMABAD, Sept 25: Pakistan on Thursday accused Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of distorting President Pervez Musharraf’s remarks and spurning peace by rejecting his “constructive” peace proposals presented at the United Nations.

“Prime Minister Vajpayee has distorted President Musharraf’s statement....By rejecting the president’s constructive proposal for dialogue and diplomacy, India has spurned peace,” foreign office spokesman Masood Khan told AFP.

Vajpayee in his speech at the UN General Assembly on Thursday accused Pakistan of using the Kashmir dispute to engage in terrorist “blackmail.”

Responding to Musharraf’s offer on Wednesday to “encourage” a general cessation of violence within Kashmir, Vajpayee dubbed it a “public admission” that Pakistan was sponsoring terrorism in the divided Himalayan territory.

“We totally refuse to let terrorism become a tool of blackmail,” Vajpayee said.

The foreign office spokesman said Musharraf in his address at the General Assembly had said that Pakistan would be prepared to encourage a general cessation of violence within Kashmir involving “reciprocal obligations on Indian forces and the Kashmiri freedom movement.”

Gen Musharraf had “invited India, jointly with Pakistan, to observe a complete ceasefire along the Line of Control,” the spokesman added. —AFP