For daily EARLY TIMES (www.earlytimes.in) of October 30, 2009

‘India never supported Taliban terror, Balochistan insurgency’

PM calls India victim of terror coming in from Pakistan

‘Don’t read too much in Mirwaiz’s pro-militancy statement made in anger’

AHMED ALI FAYYAZ

SRINAGAR, Oct 29: While slamming the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) for having appointed an observer on Kashmir, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today asserted that India would never accept any kind of pressure from anybody in the world. Calling India “a victims of the terror coming in from Pakistan”, Prime Minister asserted that New Delhi had never its hand behind anti-Pakistan insurgency, be that Taliban terrorism or the armed insurgency in Balochistan.

Addressing a news conference before returning to New Delhi at the end of his two-day visit to Kashmir valley, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sounded optimistic of Pakistan’s and the Kashmiri separatist leadership’s response to his offer of dialogue on all “internal and external dimensions” of the Kashmir problem. He said that he had offered a dialogue process with all shades of political opinion in Jammu & Kashmir and Government of Pakistan was expected to cooperate and create a congenial atmosphere.

Asked to make it clear whether his demand of dismantling the infrastructure of terror by Pakistan was, like in the past, a pre-condition to the dialogue process or different from that, Dr Singh said: “This is not a condition. But, I have made it clear time and again that the dialogue process and terrorism (coming in from Pakistan) are interlinked. If we have to really make some progress, we have to curb terrorism. We are a democratic nation. An incident of terror has the potential of derailing the process. It’s not a condition but we have got to realize that talks can not progress in such an atmosphere”.

Prime Minister ridiculed a Pakistani Minister’s recent statement and asserted that New Delhi had never supported any kind of anti-Pakistan terrorism be that of Taliban or the insurgency in Balochistan. He dismissed the Pakistani Minister’s allegation as “completely baseless and far from truth”. “India, in fact, is the victim of the terror coming in from Pakistan”, he added.

When it was pointed out to Prime Minister that OIC had, of late, assailed India’s role in the disturbed state and even appointed an observer on Kashmir, Dr Singh said: “We regret that OIC has got into this business. We have already registered our protest with the OIC headquarters and made it clear that OIC has no business to interfere in such matters. We are committed to resolve all problems and address all of their internal and external dimensions. But, let it be clear that we are not going to work under anybody’s pressure”.

When journalists sought Prime Minister’s reaction to the Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s justification of armed insurgency at a conference in London last week, Dr Singh quipped: “One should not read too much in the statements made in anger”. He said that his government was ready to talk to anybody “provided he shuns violence”. He said he was hopeful that the separatist leadership would favourably respond to his offer of engagement in talks.

"I believe a new chapter is opening in the peace process in the state and Jammu and Kashmir is turning the corner," the Prime Minister said. Referring to his "appeal" for dialogue with separatists in the state, he said "I hope it will be reciprocated in the spirit it was made”. He said the government will have to carry all stake-holders in the state to achieve "permanent peace in Jammu & Kashmir so that we can concentrate on the ambitious agenda of development and full economic revival and create lot more jobs for the young people."

Dr Singh said that after a series of meetings with representatives and leaders of different political parties he was returning to the union capital with “full satisfaction”. He said that Government of India had provided substantial financial support to Jammu & Kashmir for rebuilding its economy and addressing the problems of development and employment in the last over five years but more required to be done to ensure that benefits reach down to the grass-root level.

Dr Singh said that the Centre had sanctioned major urban development projects for different townships including Srinagar, Baramulla, Sopore, Ganderbal and Anantnag. He said that the ambitious Rs 640 Crore road communication project linking Shopian with Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu division would not suffer for want of resources as his government was committed to provide additional funds. He announced that Government of India would soon introduce a major scheme to replace all 40,000 handlooms in Jammu & Kashmir by metallic looms---exactly what Prime Minister’s Minister incharge Commerce in the previous regime, Jairam Ramesh had announced here these days last year.

Prime Minister said that J&K would get additional allocation of 500 megawatts of power from the Central pool during winter. He, however, did not mention whether it would come as grant or the state government would be charged for it.

END