India, Pakistan Set a Timetable for Peace Talks

India and Pakistan said Wednesday that they would begin formal peace talks in May or June, under a timetable the countries hope will lead by August to substantial progress toward solving their long conflict over Kashmir.

The start of the talks was delayed until after Indians hold elections for a new government, probably in April.

The countries’ foreign secretaries, the top-ranking civil servants under the foreign ministers, will conduct the negotiations on the core dispute over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

The nations also agreed to hold meetings between experts on nuclear weapons and security to seek ways to improve confidence and reduce the risk of nuclear war.

The foreign ministers will then meet in August to review progress on the issues and decide the next step, Pakistani Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar told reporters here. Dates and locations for the talks will be worked out later, he said.

“We hope that this road map will eventually lead to the settlement of all outstanding disputes between India and Pakistan, in the direction of a durable peace,” Khokhar said after concluding talks with Indian Foreign Secretary Shashank, who goes by one name.

A joint statement released after the talks said, “Both sides agreed that they would approach the composite dialogue with the sincere desire to discuss and arrive at a peaceful settlement of all bilateral issues,” including Kashmir.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee came close to agreeing on a peace process at their July 2001 summit in the Indian city of Agra.

But the talks failed at the last minute, and after terrorist attacks India that were blamed on Pakistan-backed militants, the countries in 2002 came to the brink of what would have been their fourth war since independence from Britain in 1947.

The peace process outlined in this week’s talks is largely based on a 1997 agreement that failed. It divided bilateral disputes into groups: Kashmir; the Siachen Glacier, an area of Kashmir where Indian and Pakistani troops face each other on the world’s highest battlefield; terrorism and drug trafficking; water and power projects; and economic and commercial cooperation.

Wednesday’s accord adds several new elements, such as the committee of nuclear experts, which will meet in late May to discuss confidence-building measures.

On March 9, Indian and Pakistani officials will meet to work out details of proposed bus service across the Line of Control, a cease-fire line established in 1971 that divides Kashmir. The route between the Pakistan-held city of Muzafarrabad and Indian-controlled Srinagar would help unite Kashmiri families and, it is hoped, build momentum for peace.

“I think it is very clear that both sides will have to approach this process with a great deal of sincerity,” Khokhar said. “And I have not noticed anything otherwise.”

Neither India nor Pakistan has publicly outlined a settlement for the decades-old Kashmir dispute, which sparked two of the countries’ three wars. But moderate Kashmiri separatist leaders who are holding their first negotiations with the Indian government reportedly have suggested that a united territory could be jointly ruled by India and Pakistan.

In 1989, Pakistan-backed militants took up arms in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, and clashes between guerrillas, security forces and civilians continue to occur almost daily.

The largest militant group, Hizbul Moujahedeen, says it will not declare a cease-fire during negotiations unless India makes significant concessions, such as releasing political prisoners.

Wednesday’s agreement does not say when or how Kashmiris will be allowed to participate in settling the dispute over Kashmir.

The territory is predominantly Muslim, as is Pakistan, but two-thirds of it is controlled by mainly Hindu India.

Musharraf said Wednesday at a meeting of about 2,000 pro-government Muslim clerics and scholars that after the foreign ministers meet in August, “we’ll see when to include Kashmiris in the process.”

Musharraf, who is struggling to restrain militant groups that thrive on the Kashmir conflict, is eager to obtain a settlement with India on the dispute before he hands over direct command of the military.

The Pakistani leader seized power in a coup in 1999 and has promised to step down as commanding general of the armed forces in December.

Indian officials say militant infiltrations from Pakistan-controlled areas are down sharply in recent months, but they caution that the militants’ camps, communications facilities and other elements of what India calls “terrorist infrastructure” are still in place.

The militants, and other Islamic extremist groups, have long had links to the Pakistani military’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, but Musharraf insisted Wednesday that he needed help from religious leaders to locate radical mosques and madrasas, or religious schools.