Kashmir Issue Sours India-Pakistan Talks

Talks between India and Pakistan collapsed Friday amid disagreements over the disputed region of Kashmir, ending in insults and dashing hopes for detente between the two nuclear states.

Tarik Altaf, a spokesman for the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, accused India of taking a “rigid and inflexible” position on the Himalayan region claimed by both countries and said there was no reason for the talks to go on.

“The Pakistan-India dialogue remains stalemated,” Altaf said.

Indian Foreign Minister K. Raghunath accused Pakistan of sponsoring terrorism and of harboring an unhealthy fixation on Kashmir, saying: “An obsessive focus on a single issue or a one-point agenda is as neurotic for . . . nation-states” as for individuals.

The exchange of invective followed three days of talks between the two countries, which have come under intense international pressure to settle their differences after India and then Pakistan tested nuclear weapons in May.

The discussions stalled Friday when the longtime rivals failed to agree on what to talk about. Pakistan wanted to focus on Kashmir and nuclear proliferation, while India wanted to discuss a broader range of issues. Among other things, India wanted to talk about Pakistan’s support for guerrillas in Indian-held Kashmir.

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The talks between Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, began with a brief but cordial meeting Wednesday.

The negotiations soured almost immediately. Sharif emerged from a meeting with Vajpayee on Thursday to say that they had accomplished “zero.”

“Kashmir was the root cause of all the conflict between India and Pakistan,” Sharif told the Sri Lankan newspaper the Island. “We are not here to waste each other’s time.”

Kashmir, a Muslim-majority area, was ruled by a Hindu king who opted to join India when colonial Britain carved out both nations from its crumbling empire in 1947. India, a predominantly Hindu country, now occupies two-thirds of Kashmir. Pakistan, dominated by Muslims, controls the remaining third.

Pakistan wants Kashmiris on both sides of the border to vote on which country they would join. India opposes a plebiscite, which is outlined in U.N. resolutions of the 1940s.

The conflict over Kashmir, once largely ignored outside the region, has acquired a new urgency since India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons.

The two countries regularly trade artillery fire along the disputed Kashmiri border, and more than 20,000 people have died since 1989 in the Indian-held portion of the region. Twice before, in 1947 and 1965, India and Pakistan have gone to war over Kashmir. The concern now is that if war breaks out again, it could escalate into a nuclear exchange.

As if to underscore the danger, Indian and Pakistani soldiers this week took their fighting to bloody heights.

India said Pakistani mortars slammed into a military hospital Friday, killing 16 civilians in the town of Tangdhar, Associated Press reported. India also said another six people were killed in the fighting and seven security personnel were wounded. Pakistan said 26 civilians and four soldiers died Thursday in the conflict. About 100 people, mostly civilians, were wounded. On Tuesday, 16 Hindu villagers were murdered by pro-Muslim militants, who India claimed were supported by Pakistan.

Analysts say that one of the factors preventing a settlement in Kashmir is that voters in each country won’t allow their government to make any meaningful concessions.

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In Pakistan, elected officials often tell voters that all of Kashmir will one day fall into the hands of Pakistan. Shortly after the nuclear tests, Indian officials threatened to deal harshly with rebels operating inside Indian Kashmir.

“Domestic politics will not allow anyone to move an inch,” said C.P. Bhambri from Jawaharlal Nehru University’s School of International Studies in New Delhi.