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Peace process "irreversible", say India and Pakistan
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-18 17:00

India and Pakistan said their peace process was "irreversible" and pledged to boost transport links across Kashmir, as Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf wrapped up an upbeat visit.

"The two leaders had substantive talks on all issues. They determined that the peace process was now irreversible," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, reading from a joint statement while Musharraf looked on.

India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (R)shakes hands with Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf after making a joint statement in New Delhi April 18, 2005. Declaring their peace process irreversible, nuclear rivals India and Pakistan agreed on Monday to open up the heavily militarised frontier dividing Kashmir, capping a successful visit by Musharraf. [Reuters]

The Pakistani leader told newspaper editors in New Delhi earlier Monday that progress in the talks had exceeded expectations but he cautioned that Kashmir remained a flashpoint.

Ruling out a military option, he warned, "Unless we resolve the dispute it can erupt again in a future time under a different leadership."

The two countries each hold part of Kashmir but both claim the territory in full. They have fought two of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947 over the Himalayan region.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, left, sits with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at an official dinner hosted by Singh, in New Delhi, India, Saturday April 16, 2005.[AP]

Singh and Musharraf met at least four times during the Pakistani leader's three-day visit, spending Sunday watching a cricket clash between India and Pakistan before settling into extensive talks.

The statement said the two countries had agreed to increase the frequency of a bus service between Srinagar in Indian Kashmir and Muzaffarabad in the Pakistani zone, and to allow trucks on the route to promote trade.

They also announced that new bus services would start between Poonch in southern Indian Kashmir and Rawalakot, across the international border in Pakistan.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf (2nd L) and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (R) wave to the crowd before the start of the sixth and final one-day international cricket match between India and Pakistan, in New Delhi April 17, 2005. Musharraf's visit was originally planned as an informal trip to watch India and Pakistan play cricket on Sunday, but has taken on the air of a summit although both sides shy away from calling it one.[Reuters]

More contact between families separated by the heavily militarized ceasefire line in Kashmir, known as the Line of Control, would also be promoted, the statement said.

Musharraf's visit started as an invitation to watch Pakistan play India at cricket but quickly built into a broader review of the 14-month peace process.

"In this spirit the two leaders addressed the issue of Jammu and Kashmir and agreed to continue these discussions in a sincere and purposeful and forward looking manner for a final settlement," the statement said.

Musharraf, on his first visit to India since 2001 when a summit with then premier Atal Behari Vajpayee collapsed over Kashmir, was upbeat about the results of the talks in New Delhi.

He said the trip achieved more than he expected because of the "very flexible" approach shown by both sides.

"The decisions that have been taken by both sides cannot be allowed to be disrupted by anyone ... this peace process has to be carried forward to its ultimate conclusion," Musharraf said.

Political analysts hailed the positive statements made by both sides.

"We are now moving forward toward dealing with the problem (of Kashmir). If the peace process is irreversible, it has a huge significance," said C. Raja Mohan, who teaches politics at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University.

"It is too early to talk of solutions. What is important is to travel down the (peacemaking) road," he told Indian television network NDTV.

Musharraf set the tone for the weekend when he arrived Saturday bearing what he said was a "message of peace from Pakistan", which he confirmed with a "prayer for peace" at the tomb of a Persian Sufi holyman in the Rajasthan city of Ajmer.

He was due to leave Monday for the Philippines, for a three-day state visit.

The latest peace effort builds on a ceasefire along the Line of Control in place since November 2003 and a visit by Vajpayee in January 2004 to Islamabad where the two sides agreed on a formula that called for an end to militancy in Kashmir and talks on the divided state.

The peace process was continued by Singh's Congress Party-led coalition government which was elected in May 2004.

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