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  • Nov 27th, 2006
  • Comments Off on Siachen pullout: New Delhi seeks positions’ recognition
India on Sunday asked Pakistan to authenticate the positions of troops from both nations on a strategic glacier in occupied Kashmir - a move that would lead to the demilitarisation of the area, a report said.

India's defence minister A K Antony said New Delhi was ready for more discussions with Islamabad on the subject, the Press Trust of India said.

"There is no change in our position (on Siachen)," Antony said.

"Pakistan must authenticate Indian positions there," he said in response to comments by Pakistan's foreign minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri on Saturday.

"We understand that there has been a lot of progress. It requires some meetings and, given the political will, it should be resolved," Kasuri had told reporters, referring to the demilitarisation of the disputed Siachen glacier.

India has occupied most of the 6,300-metre glacier since 1987 and has refused to withdraw its troops.

Analysts say the region is of little strategic value but New Delhi wants troop positions marked out in case Pakistan moves its soldiers in after a withdrawal.

Islamabad fears that writing down the positions would be tacit acceptance of India's claims to Siachen.

Pakistan and India agreed to a cease-fire in November 2003 along the Siachen front and the rest of their borders.

The demilitarisation of Siachen is part of peace talks started between India and P 2004, aimed at building trust between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

In September, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf agreed at a meeting in the Cuban capital Havana to fast-track a settlement to the Siachen dispute.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri on Sunday said an anti-terror panel set up earlier this month to share intelligence with India would work successfully only if both countries co-operated with each other rather than trading accusations.

"When Pakistan co-operated with Britain and prevented airliner accidents, it did not happen through newspapers, it happened through cooperation," Kasuri told reporters, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

Kasuri, who is in India on a private visit, was referring to a plot by terrorists uncovered in August to detonate liquid explosives on planes flying from Britain to the United States. The plot was foiled in Britain with more than a dozen arrests in the UK, thanks to intelligence tip-offs from Pakistan.

Kasuri warned that if the India-Pakistan anti-terror mechanism was used "propagandistically... it will fail".

Earlier this month, nuclear-armed India and Pakistan announced the creation of a three-member panel to consider counter-terrorism measures, including regular sharing of information.

The idea of such a panel was first mooted in Cuba in September in talks between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in the wake of July train bombings in Mumbai that killed 186 people.

India alleged Pakistan's spy agency had a role in the Mumbai attacks, a claim denied by Islamabad.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006


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