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No talks with Pak: Vajpayee
Claim on troop buildup absurd, says Jaswant
Tribune News Service and Agencies

New Delhi, October 17
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today said India would not resume the stalled dialogue with Pakistan until it gave up its insistence on making the Kashmir issue central to the bilateral relations.

"There is no proposal to resume dialogue with Islamabad," Mr Vajpayee said when asked as to whether he planned to visit Pakistan in response to President Pervez Musharraf’s invitation to carry forward the bilateral dialogue after the Agra Summit.

"They invite us for talks but time and again go back to the Kashmir issue. Their entire talk is focussed on Kashmir," the Prime Minister said while talking to reporters at his residence after a book release function.

Meanwhile, India termed as "absurd and totally wrong" the Pakistani claim about troop buildup along the border and said only re-adjustment of forces had been undertaken in the Northern Command to deal with infiltration attempts which were continuing unabated. 

"These claims are absurd and totally wrong," External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh told reporters after delivering the first Tej Bahadur Sapru lecture here.

Describing the claims as "complete fabrication", an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said, "there is no truth in it. The spokesman of the Pakistani side has to exercise restraint."

Meanwhile, a senior Defence Ministry official said, "No additional troops or air assets have been moved to Jammu and Kashmir. There have only been routine turn over of units to deal with infiltration attempt, which have not reduced". 

Dismissing claims of Indian troop build-up made by Pakistani Defence spokesman Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi in Islamabad, the official said, "adjustments had been carried out, as usual, every year, before the onset of winter and as per requirement of counter-insurgency measures".

General Qureshi, claiming movement of Indian troops on the border, had said Pakistani forces were on a state of high alert and "reserve the right to retaliate any action of aggression by India".

A spokesperson for the External Affairs Ministry also said Pakistan's allegations are a "complete fabrication. We refute such statements in totality".

The official said the Pakistani spokesperson should exercise restraint while making "absolutely untrue statements".

He said the deployment of troops in Jammu and Kashmir was dynamic. The turnover of troops before the onset of winter was a normal practice, he added.

Air Force sources said there was not an iota of truth in what Pakistan was saying. Not a single aircraft has been added nor has any Air Force asset been relocated," they added.

Earlier, claiming movement of Indian troops on the border, Pakistan today said its forces were on a state of high alert and “reserve the right to retaliate any action of aggression by India.”

Describing as “irresponsible” remarks of Defence Minister George Fernandes yesterday and referring to the “unprovoked” firing by Indian troops across the Line of Control, General Qureshi said their armed forces “are fully alive to the situation.”

However, he declined to give any operational detail of the alleged movement of troops.