LAHORE, July 24: Indians are reviewing mistakes made in the previous Pakistan-India talks that derailed the peace process to avert the possibility of failure in new talks, Maulana Fazlur Rahman quoted Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee as saying during a meeting between the two in New Delhi.

The JUI leader and MMA secretary-general was speaking at a press conference here on his return on Thursday from a week-long visit to India at the head of a four-man delegation of his party’s parliamentarians.

Terming his visit a success, Maulana Fazlur Rahman said when the delegation called on Mr Vajpayee the Indian premier told them that many abortive rounds of talks between the two neighbouring countries had been held in the past. “To ensure that mistakes are not repeated in the future, we want to analyze the past lapses that undermined the peace moves,” the Maulana quoted Mr Vajpayee as saying.

Another view during the meeting was that minister-level talks should precede a summit meeting to sort out contentious issues beforehand.

He said Mr Vajpayee had also assured him that he would attend the Saarc summit scheduled to be held in Islamabad in January without any preconditions.

“Mr Vajpayee believes that this step will further help in making the atmosphere conducive for an India-Pakistan summit.”

Asked if the issue of infiltration had come under discussion during the meeting, he said the prime minister was informed that it was a contentious issue as both the countries had different stances on it.

“What you call as infiltration, we term it a struggle (of Kashmiris) for attaining the right to self-determination. The better option would be to solve it through talks,” Mr Vajpayee was told.

The JUI leader denied that he had given any statements in India against jihad in Kashmir or in favour of accepting Line of Control as the international border.

He said he did not want to spoil the positive results from his Indian visit by making his press conference a “denial statement”.

All (misunderstandings) would be cleared when he would meet political leaders who, he said, were his friends.

Asked if the recent bomb attack in held Kashmir came under discussion during the visit, Maulana Fazl said they told the Indians that they wanted to put a brake on such attacks.

Asked if this implied that the jihad in Kashmir should be stopped, he said: “Should Kashmiris want to keep guns in their hands forever. We want to give them honour and peace. What they are trying to get through the (armed) struggle, we want to give it to them through talks.”

When asked if jihad and talks could continue side by side, he said there was no clash between the two. “Two parties in a fight can initiate a dialogue (to settle the bone of contention).”

He denied that he had any connection with any ‘jihadi’ party.

Maulana Fazlur Rahman said he supported the holding of a plebiscite to decide the future of Kashmiris, but added that the Shimla agreement was also a reality that had not been rescinded by any government.

Hafiz Husain Ahmad, who was also part of the delegation, said the seriousness of the Indians in the peace process could be judged from the fact that the delegation was not on a state visit but even then the Indian authorities contacted them and arranged their meeting with Mr Vajpayee.