NEW DELHI, May 8: Amid allegations of support to terrorism in each other’s country, underscored by the exchange of words over the Karachi suicide attack on Wednesday, President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee are yet being persuaded to meet on the sidelines of an international conference on terrorism in Almaty next month, diplomats said.
Vajpayee and Gen Musharraf are expected to come face to face at the conference in Kazakhstan early June although the Press Trust of India quoted official sources as ruling out a formal meeting between the two. Diplomats said important friends of both countries had not given up hope on that front.
They quoted two recent interviews given by senior US officials to an Indian newspaper, in which both had emphasized the need for Islamabad and New Delhi to be talking seriously, as indicative of the work being done at the backstage to bring both leaders to help resume their elusive dialogue.
“Their reluctance to engage in serious talks would be even less acceptable today than it has been since Kathmandu,” said on diplomat.
Diplomats said, referring to the events in Karachi, Gujarat and Kashmir, where heavy exchange of fire has been reported by troops from both sides of the LoC, that these happenings should reinforce the need to talk and not aloofness.
Wednesday’s massacre in Karachi of French nationals may not have helped though.
Reacting to reported Pakistani suggestions that it could have been behind the suicide bombing that killed at least 14 people outside the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi, an Indian spokesperson said: “Such allegations should be treated with the disdain that they deserve.”
External Affairs spokesperson Nirupama Rao said the killing was a terrorist act but accused Pakistan of making a completely baseless allegation with regard to India’s involvement, which she said was a “shining example of Pakistani fabrication”.
Ms Rao’s remarks merely echoed through an atmosphere of mistrust, which appeared to be the theme of External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh’s intervention in parliament on Wednesday.
Also the rabid Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, of which Singh is not a member, gave its own spin to the equation with Pakistan, highlighting India’s real or imaginary threats from external terrorism, authored of course by the ISI.
Singh told parliament that India was not interested in talks unless Pakistan gave up cross-border terrorism in Kashmir as well as “animosity” towards India.
“I had said talks can be held to improve relations and not just as an exercise in public relations,” he said, referring to the statement of President Musharraf that he was prepared to have talks anywhere, anytime.
In an atmosphere that appeared increasingly menacing, the RSS said it suspected the involvement of foreign elements in Gujarat, and did not rule out the possibility of Pakistan and its intelligence agency ISI behind the Godhra train carnage and subsequent violence in the state.
Suggesting that the involvement of foreign militants “who are bent upon creating instability in India could not be ruled out,” RSS spokesman M.G. Vaidya told reporters in Nagpur that “though we do not have information, our suspicion is solidly based on their activities carried out in the country.”
Some forces do wish to see Gujarat burning which would destabilise the state, Vaidya said.
Vaidya said senior RSS leaders had told the prime minister last week about the possibility of Godhra-type attack on Hindus across the country on the basis of feedback from its cadre.
With Vajpayee and Musharraf, both due to be in Almaty on the same day, it will be the first time in five months since the Saarc summit in Kathmandu in January that the two leaders will be present at the same forum.
The Press Trust of India said Vajpayee would travel to the Kazakh capital for the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) to be held from June 2 to 4.
Among the CICA members are Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, Egypt besides other Central Asian republics. Terrorism is expected to figure prominently at the conference which is expected to come out with a declaration on combating terrorism.
This will be preceded by a bilateral visit by Vajpayee to Turkey from May 30 to June 2, with focus on further consolidating relations between the two countries.