Talks after Pak stops shelling — Fernandes

“Pakistan has been indiscriminately shelling in the areas along the LoC for over a decade. The shelling by different kinds of weapons have been claiming two lives every three days. Pakistan should realise that the existing hostilities were neither in its nor India’s interests.”

While saying that India has received a proposal for resumption of talks from Pakistan’s military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, the defence minister opined that even if it is held, it will not serve any purpose simply because Pakistan besides having betrayed India’s trust, has not given up its penchant for indulging in cross-border terrorism by pushing mercenaries into Indianterritory through the cover of shelling. To a query whether India would have any reservation in holding talks with a military regime which had captured power in Pakistan after throwing out a democratically-elected government there, Fernandes said this was of no consequence because “we still maintain diplomatic ties with Pakistan. In Myanmar it is the military junta which is in power and we are having a state to state relations with that country.”

The defence minister also ruled out India intervening in any way to save Pakistan’s deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was presently under the protective custody of the army.

Asked what the response of Indian government was to a letter written by Nawaz Sharif’s son appealing India to save his father, Fernandes said “in this situation, what can we do.”

Replying to questions about the ISI activities and fencing along the international border, he said “both the defence and home ministries would have to coordinate things to tackle the ISI menace andalso to have the fencing done on the international border with Pakistan which extends from Jammu to Kutch.”

Asked whether he still held the view that the “Kargil misadventure” was the handiwork of Pakistani army and that the Nawaz Sharif government was in the dark about it, Fernandes said “the recent development in Pakistan does not need any further corroboration”.

On the announcement of withdrawal of troops from the international border by Gen Musharraf, the defence minister said during the conflict along the 144 km-long LoC in Kargil in May, both the countries had moved their troops towards the international border from the peace areas. “But as the hostilities were limited to LoC in Kargil, Pakistan should first focus itself in redressing India’s grievances over its indiscretion to encroach into Kargil.”