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Pakistan Will Not Raise Kashmir at SAARC Summit
Huma Aamir Malik
Agencies, Arab News
ISLAMABAD, 30 December 2003 — Pakistan indicated yesterday it will not raise its territorial dispute with neighboring India on Kashmir at an upcoming regional summit, saying bilateral issues are not discussed at meetings of the South Asian bloc.
The summit of leaders from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives and Nepal — all members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation — is scheduled for Jan. 4-6 in Islamabad.
Spokesman for Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, Masood Khan, said SAARC provided a “rare and historic opportunity” for meeting between Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistani leaders.
Pakistan demands India open talks with Pakistan to discuss bilateral issues including the dispute over Kashmir.
However, Khan said Pakistan will not broach Kashmir at the SAARC summit.
“There is a long standing tradition that bilateral issues are not discussed in SAARC,” he said at a regular news briefing in Islamabad.
Despite a recent thaw in relations between the nuclear-armed neighbors that has seen them restore full diplomatic relations and restart some travel links, India has so far spurned Pakistan’s calls for beginning top-level peace negotiations.
Thousands of police and paramilitary soldiers will be deployed in Islamabad for the safety and security of leaders during the ummit, officials said yesterday.
“We have called in 3,000 policemen from other provinces to perform security duties,” Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Rauf told reporters.
He said some 500 additional troops of paramilitary Frontier Corps will also be deployed in the capital.
Rauf said police commandos will also be deployed at key intersections.
“All entry and exit points of the capital are being monitored round the clock and every person or vehicle entering or leaving the city is searched.”
An unspecified number of regular army troops have also been deployed, as part of the unprecedented security, following two assassination attempts on President Pervez Musharraf this month, the latest killing 15 people on Christmas Day.
Witnesses said army soldiers had also been positioned on hills overlooking Islamabad for the first time in the wake of the massive security cordon. “We can guarantee that there will be a foolproof security system for the SAARC leaders,” Khan said.
The area between the two hotels reserved for delegates and the conference venue will both be cordoned off, Khan added.
It is not directed against the citizenry of Pakistan,” he said in response to questions that the measures would cause inconvenience to the people.
The government has already extended the winter vacations of schools and colleges in Islamabad till Jan. 7 and the areas where heads of SAARC countries will stay would be declared “red zones,” Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said.
“The citizens may face some problems, but we need their cooperation to make the security plan effective,” he added.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python (Alquds, 1/25/03. |
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