Pak to seek ‘return’ of Siachen areas

ISLAMABAD, Nov 1 (PTI, UNI) — The forthcoming Indo-Pak talks already seem set to run into rough weather with Pakistan planning to ask India to "return" some areas in Siachen which it claims Delhi is "occupying unlawfully", media reports said here today.

The talks, to be held in Delhi from November 5 to 13, would take up some crucial matters like Siachen, and Pakistan claimed India had violated earlier agreements on some of the issues at stake, the reports said, quoting official sources.

The reports said Pakistan would send a strong delegation, including a seven-member defence team led by Defence Secretary Lt-Gen Iftekhar Ali Khan (retd), to hold negotiations on Siachen with India during the talks.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Tariq Altaf claimed yesterday India had not only resiled from agreements, including a 1989 agreement on Siachen, but was also trying to vitiate the atmosphere before the talks by spreading news about clashes at the glacial battlefield.

The forthcoming talks, which would take up six issues, are slated barely a week after India repulsed a Pakistani attack on one of its posts in Siachen and in the process killed five Pakistani soldiers.

Mr Altaf accused India of "spreading" news about clashes in Siachen and also making allegations about a "proxy war" launched by Pakistan in Kashmir.

It was very much apparent from the spokesman’s comments that the Pakistani side was not willing for any progress on any of the issues.

"Progress in various areas must move in tandem", Mr Altaf said indicating that since no progress could be made over the first two issues of peace and security and Jammu and Kashmir, there could not be any progress in other matters as well.

He said Pakistan would continue to pursue the policy of involving a third-party to settle Indo-Pak disputes by saying that Kashmir was going to be an important subject of discussion when United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited the South Asian region towards the month-end.

LUCKNOW: Defence Minister George Fernandes has said the motive behind attacks by Pakistani forces on three outposts in the Siachen area was to grab some land and claim it to be in their possession during the forthcoming foreign secretary level talks.

Talking to newspersons here on Sunday, he said that securitywise India was in a better position after the Pokhran blasts.

He said the "perception kept changing given the fact that today we are a nuclear state".

Referring to the criticism from some quarters in regard to his statement on China, the Defence Minister said he had not been misquoted on the issue by the media, but in some cases his statement was also distorted.