Kashmiri Muslim protesters shout pro-freedom slogans atop the burnt wreckage of a police vehicle they turned over during a protest in Srinagar, India, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008. Thousands of Muslims poured into the streets of Kashmir overnight, demanding independence from India hours after archival Pakistan called on the United Nations to stop what it characterized as gross human rights violations in the divided Himalayan region. (AP Photo/ Dar Yasin) | ||
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India says peace talks with Pakistan under threat
NEW DELHI (AP) — India's prime minister said Friday that the peace process with Pakistan was in danger of failing because of attacks like last month's bombing of New Delhi's mission in Afghanistan.
India and Afghanistan say Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency orchestrated the attack, which killed 58 people. Islamabad denies playing any role but has promised to investigate the allegation.
"If this issue of terrorism is not addressed, all the good intentions that we have for our two peoples to live in peace and harmony will be negated," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in an Independence Day speech. "We will not be able to pursue the peace initiatives we want to take."
Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan were born during the bloody partition of the subcontinent at independence from Britain in 1947. The split sparked one of the most violent upheavals of the 20th century and created a rivalry that has led to three wars.
But relations between the nuclear-armed rivals have improved considerably since the start of a peace process in 2004, and India's leader has pledged to continue the talks despite the allegations of a Pakistani role in the embassy attack.
"I have personally conveyed my concern and disappointment to the government of Pakistan," said Singh, speaking from behind a bulletproof screen atop the ramparts of the historic Red Fort, the massive 17th-century sandstone palace built by the Muslim Mogul emperors who ruled much of India before the British arrived.
India also accuses Pakistan of playing a role in more than a dozen bombings that have hit India in the past three years, and the two sides have blamed each other for a surge in shootings across their heavily fortified de facto border in Kashmir, the divided Himalayan region at the center of their rivalry.
The latest reported shooting — the 20th so far this year — came Friday when India said its forces along the frontier, called the Line of Control, were fired on by Pakistani forces armed with rocket-propelled grenades.
No casualties were reported by the Indian side, and Pakistani officials were not immediately available for comment.
Kashmir, an overwhelmingly Muslim region, is claimed by both India and Pakistan and has been the focus of two of their three wars.
There were regular exchanges of gunfire along the Line of Control before the two sides signed a cease-fire in late 2003.
But the recent shootings have led to a familiar round of accusations, with Pakistan blaming India for violating the cease-fire and New Delhi accusing Islamabad of helping Islamic rebels sneak into its part of Kashmir.
Nearly a dozen Islamic rebel groups have been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with Pakistan. More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict since 1989, and India routinely accuses Pakistan of assisting the insurgents, a charge Islamabad denies.
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