& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Nuke rivals agree roadmap on peace

REUTERS, Islamabad
Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan announced a "basic roadmap" for peace yesterday aimed at ending more than five decades of hostility over the divided Himalayan state of Kashmir.
After three days of preparatory talks in Islamabad, the two sides agreed to hold a series of meetings over the next six months to tackle a wide range of disputes, with Kashmir and nuclear security topping the agenda.
"We do have before us now a sort of a basic roadmap for a Pakistan-India peace process to which we have both agreed," Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar told a news conference after meeting his Indian counterpart, Shashank.
"We hope that this road map will eventually lead to settlement of all outstanding disputes between India and Pakistan, and in the direction of
durable peace."
The foreign secretaries will meet again in May or June to launch the "composite dialogue" and will discuss both Kashmir and measures to reduce the risk of nuclear and conventional war.
Officials from other ministries will meet in July to tackle a range of issues, including economic links, people-to-people contacts and disputes over water sharing, maritime boundaries and the Siachen Glacier, the world's highest battlefield.
Foreign ministers will then meet in August to review overall progress, a joint statement said.
The two countries have gone to war three times since gaining independence from Britain in 1947 -- twice over Kashmir, which they both claim. An insurgency by Muslim rebels in Kashmir since 1989 has worsened ties between the neighbors.
FROM PAGE 1
India and Pakistan were on the brink of a fourth war in 2002, four years after both conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests.
Diplomats see signs that both sides genuinely want to make a fresh bid for peace and to avoid the pitfalls that have undermined previous attempts to mend their differences, but caution that there is still a long way to go.
"They both seemed to have been absolutely determined to make this work and to avoid disagreements," said one Western diplomat. "It's a good start, but the hard part is yet to come when they start talking substance."
FRESH BID
FOR PEACE
In the latest initiative, the neighbors aim to take up where they left off when a composite dialogue over eight issues ran aground in 1999 and finally collapsed at a summit in the Indian city of Agra in July 2001.
"The process we started is moving forwards smoothly toward a solution," President Pervez Musharraf said, promising to take into account the wishes of Kashmiris in any solution to the 57-year-old dispute.
"It should be acceptable to India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris," he said in an address to Islamic scholars. "If a solution is not found according to the wishes of the Kashmiris, then a solution will not be found."
Ordinary Kashmiris appeared to welcome the news, even though some complain that they are being excluded from the talks.
"We welcome the decision of officials of India and Pakistan, but without the participation of the people of Kashmir such talks will not yield any results," said Moulana Abbas Ansari, chairman of the separatist All Parties Hurriyat (freedom) Conference.
India and Pakistan have both appeared keen to maintain the momentum generated by last month's meeting between Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. But Indian elections expected in April meant some delay was inevitable.
But the neighbors and old foes remain far apart in their dispute over who should control Kashmir.
"We feel the atmosphere is much better and the attitude is positive," Khokhar said. "I think there is a realization on both sides that war is not an option."
More than a million troops were massed on the border in 2002 in a tense military confrontation sparked by an attack on India's parliament that Delhi blamed on Pakistani-backed militants.
Heavy US pressure helped to avert a war, and in November the two sides agreed to impose a cease-fire along the Line of Control dividing Kashmir. But mistrust runs deep.
India accuses Pakistan of supporting militants fighting its rule in Kashmir. Although it says infiltration into Kashmir from Pakistan has slowed, it says Islamabad has not dismantled what it calls the "terrorist infrastructure" within its country.
For its part India has to allay Pakistani fears that it does not see the talks as a way of sidelining the Kashmir issue, and giving it time to crush the separatist insurgency there.