India and Pakistan yesterday tried to rescue some hope from their failure to hammer out a peace agreement on the 54-year dispute over northern Kashmir state, where Muslim insurgents have started a fresh wave of violence.
Fundamental differences over Kashmir, which is divided between the neighbours but claimed by both, proved too strong to permit India and Pakistan to achieve peace and an easing of tension between the nuclear rivals who have fought two of their three wars since independence over the disputed state. They also engaged in an 11-week border war in Kashmir two summers ago in which 1,200 soldiers died.
The Indian Defence Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, declared that the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, had "firmly" tried to raise the question of terrorism with the Pakistani President, Gen Pervez Mush arraf, at their two-day summit at Agra, the site of the 17th century Taj Mahal.
"If such an understanding by Pakistan existed on terrorism, this situation [of no agreement] would not have arisen," he said at Agra. India blames Pakistan for sponsoring Kashmir's 12year insurgency which has claimed over 30,000 lives, a claim that is denied.
Official sources indicated that the hardline Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, may have been responsible for the failure in reaching an agreement on a declaration referring to the "centrality" of the Kashmir issue.
They said Mr Advani believed the declaration went too far in Pakistan's favour and would offend supporters of Mr Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. The BJP leads the federal coalition and faces crucial state elections early next year.
Just before entering a third and final round of one-to-one talks with Mr Vajpayee on Monday morning, Gen Musharraf turned a breakfast meeting with Indian editors into an impromptu press conference at which he chided his hosts for trying to marginalise the Kashmir dispute.
Sounding a conciliatory note, the Pakistani Foreign Minister, Mr Abdul Sattar, said the peace talks remained inconclusive but did not fail. "The two leaders laid a valuable foundation to reach a fuller agreement at a later stage," Mr Sattar said in Islamabad, adding that Gen Musharraf and Mr Vajpayee would meet at the United Nations in September.
"The progress made at Agra should be the foundation for the continuation of dialogue," he said.
