India alleges Pakistan still training militants

NEW DELHI: An Indian parliamentary report has alleged that Pakistan continues training militants to fight Indian forces in Kashmir, though cross-border militant movement from Pakistani territory has declined considerably.

The fact that terrorist training camps inside Pakistan’s territory “are still operating — though infiltration into held Jammu and Kashmir has come down considerably — points to the grave danger inherent in the situation,” said the report, quoted by the Press Trust of India news agency. The report is written by Indian lawmakers from both governing and opposition parties.s.

Pressure from the international community to ease tensions shouldn’t force the Indian government to “hasten the peace process in an unrealistic manner,” PTI quoted the report as saying. The parliamentary committee, led by the chairmanship of Laxminarayan Pandey, an opposition lawmaker belonging to the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, urged the government to prepare its strategy to improve ties with Pakistan with the “greatest care”.

The report was presented to parliament last week, but released to the media on Tuesday.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s visit to India last month gave fresh impetus to the dialogue launched by the nuclear-armed rivals in January 2004 to resolve their differences, including a decades-long dispute over divided Kashmir. Both claim the Himalayan region in its entirety. India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir since their independence from Britain in 1947. ap

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