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Monday, August 12, 2013
US urges Indo-Pak dialogue on IHKWASHINGTON: The United States has said it continues to encourage Pakistan and India on holding “further dialogue” to address Kashmir tension brewing up in the wake of firing incidents along the Line of Control in the disputed region.
“We certainly have seen that the governments of India and Pakistan are in contact over the issue,” State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki noted when the issue was raised for the third day in succession at the daily briefing. “We continue to encourage further dialogue,” she added, a day after Indian protesters stormed the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi following India’s uncorroborated claims this week over killing of five Indian soldiers inside the Indian-occupied Kashmir. On Thursday, Pakistani officials said that Indian troops’ unprovoked firing from across the Line of Control seriously wounded a civilian in Tatta Pani sector. The State Department this week refused to speculate who might have been responsible for the alleged killings. Islamabad has denied its forces’ involvement in the alleged killings after some Indian officials quickly pointed fingers at Pakistan. “I don’t have any more on it for you,” the State Department spokesperson said when a journalist asked who might have been behind the alleged killing of Indian soldiers.
“We still believe, as has consistently been our position, that the pace, scope, and character of India and Pakistan’s dialogue on Kashmir is for those two countries to determine. So we just encourage them to continue to do that through dialogue,” the spokesperson said, explaining Washington’s policy on talks between the two South Asian nuclear powers. Resolving the decades-old Jammu and Kashmir dispute, a UN-recognised outstanding issue, is seen by international and regional experts as key to establishing lasting peace in South Asia. app
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk