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Pakistan has evidence of Indian involvement in Balochistan: FO

* Pakistan lodges protest with US forces in Afghanistan over cross-border firing incident
* No unilateral demilitarisation in Kashmir

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has evidence of Indian involvement in the insurgency in Balochistan, the Foreign Office has said.

Pakistan is processing information about Indian involvement in Balochistan and a decision to share the information with India and other countries will be made later, Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told a weekly press briefing on Monday.

“We go by hard evidence,” she said in response to a question about Indian involvement in Balochistan.

President Pervez Musharraf had spoken about the issue in a television interview which was broadcast at the weekend. “What the president of Pakistan has said and what the government of Pakistan earlier said is very clear, I need not add anything to that, about Indian interference and involvement in our internal affairs in Balochistan,” AFP quoted her as saying.

Aslam said Pakistan had lodged a strong protest with the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan over an incident on Saturday when eight people were killed in Saidgai village in North Waziristan by cross-border fire. She said the Americans had denied their troops were involved in the firing but Pakistan had initiated investigations to find out what exactly happened. She said local people had reported that a helicopter also landed in the area and Pakistan was investigating this report. She said Pakistan didn’t know who initiated the firing but protested to coalition forces as they were responsible for security on the other side of the Durand Line.

To a question about the peace process between India and Pakistan, Aslam conceded that Pakistan was frustrated by the slow progress in the talks, but added: “It is not all bleak.”

“We are going to resume the third round of the composite dialogue and also there are various ideas being thrown up and being discussed,” Aslam said. “We do hope that there will be flexibility and we can take this process further.”Gen Musharraf has proposed demilitarisation and self-governance as steps towards a resolution of the Kashmir issue. Aslam said Pakistan would not withdraw troops from the areas of Kashmir under its control unilaterally.

The spokeswoman said there was no infiltration from the Pakistani side of the Line of Control (LoC) to the Indian side, and Indian officials were making conflicting statements about the issue. “Some people are saying infiltration has gone up while others are saying it has gone down. I don’t know how to read it,” she said.

She said there were currently thousands of international aid workers engaged in relief operations in Kashmir and they had not reported any infiltration.

To another question, she said Pakistan was interested in acquiring civilian nuclear technology as its economy was growing and energy requirements increasing. She demanded that Pakistan be exempted from Nuclear Suppliers Group restrictions, as India had been exempted from these restriction as a result of last year’s agreement between the US and India.

Aslam denied that Pakistan was dragging its feet on the opening of a consulate in Mumbai. She told a questioner that no Pakistani delegation was due to visit Israel, though one would visit Gaza.

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