Aziz remarks bail out Pak army

THE NATION : The speculation generated by the observation of former Foreign Secretary Niaz A. Naik that the back-channel diplomacy conducted by him as a special emissary of the Prime Minister was about to bear fruit and India would have settled the issue by September 1999 had the Kargil episode not intervened, and the wishy washy reaction his statement provoked from the Foreign Office spokesman, who termed it as ``loose talk'', have been laid to rest by Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz. The Foreign Minister denied in categorical terms the impression that the Army had sabotaged the process of peace talks, which Naik's observation had by implication created, suggesting that while the civilian leadership was pursuing the course of negotiation, the Army was planning to go on a warpath.

The correct position, Mr Aziz revealed, was that India had gone back on the following four-point understanding ithad reached during the secret diplomacy: respect for the Line of Control under the Simla agreement; recognition of the Kashmir problem; time-bound talks on Kashmir; and defusing the situation in Kargil. But to call Naik's inappropriate remark ``personal opinion'' is unacceptable. The facts are so clear that there is no scope of variation in opinion. One wonders what prompted Mr Naik to make such a misleading statement and whether, under the terms of his mandate, he was not bound to keep quiet. The authentic voice of the Prime Minister, his sponsor, could have avoided the confusion it had created, whose one fall-out has been to wrongly show the Army as being opposed to peaceful settlement of the dispute with India.

60 battalions deployed in J-K

THE NATION: India has sent massive troop reinforcements to Kashmir to counter the resurgence of a 10-year-old Kashmiri campaign in the disputed Himalayan region. ``Sixty battalions of the Army have been moved into the state and the deployment will becompleted today,'' Kashmir police chief Gurbachan Jagat said on Thursday. He said a major offensive would be launched against Muslim fighters, who have intensified their activities following the recent Kashmir conflict and in the run-up to the month-long general elections which began September 5. The Kashmir conflict required a large redeployment of forces along the disputed border with Pakistan, easing the pressure on Kashmiri fighters operating in the Kashmir valley and other areas. ``Instead of hiding in the forests, they came down near the villages and there were incidents where they managed to sneak into heavily guarded camps,'' Jagat said.