India Blames Pakistan as Tensions Build
Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh accused Pakistan on Friday of “evil designs,” as tensions between the two countries rose after skirmishes along their disputed border in Kashmir.
The Indian leader told a public rally in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar that Pakistan was behind a recent bomb blast at a Hindu procession and an incident in which the head of a cow, sacred animals to Hindus, was thrown at a religious place in Kashmir.
The incidents were “heinous acts committed under directions from across the border,” Singh said. The blast on April 3 in Punjab state, which also borders Pakistan, killed 32 people.
“Pakistan is giving directions to subversive elements trained and armed by it to communalize the situation in Punjab and Kashmir,” Singh said.
Predominantly Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir, since they won independence from Britain in 1947. Pakistan rules one-third of Kashmir, and India controls the rest.
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