M A I N   N E W S

Advani ends Britain visit

London, August 23
While Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani flew back to India today after a four-day visit to the United Kingdom, it is learnt that British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott will be visiting India next month.

Home Secretary David Blunkett has also accepted Mr Advani’s invitation to visit India.

Mr Advani also met Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and discussed Indo-UK bilateral relations, cooperation on counter-terrorism and the India-Pakistan situation.

After their meeting Mr Straw said, “I have known Mr L.K. Advani since my time as Home Secretary and we have always enjoyed a strong working relationship. India is one of UK’s closest friends.’’

He added, “I raised several consular cases with Mr Advani and we spoke about the situation in Gujarat. A key part of our discussion was the close cooperation we share with India on counter-terrorism. We also discussed the difficulties between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.’’

Mr Advani has been categorical in stressing the need for the international community to put greater pressure on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to abide by the mandatory obligations under UNSCR 1373 and abide by his commitments to stop cross-border terrorism permanently and dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan. He said no talks could be held with Pakistan until terrorism stopped.

“There is a firm consensus that unless you abandon this path (of terrorism) altogether there is no point in discussing’’ he said.

Mr Advani and Mr Blunkett spoke on a wide range of security issues. Both sides agreed that terrorism could not, under any circumstance, be called freedom struggle. Mr Advani expressed his appreciation for the shared determination of the two countries to combat the scourge of international terrorism.

Giving a chilling account of how the two countries came close to war in Pakistan at the end of last year after the December 13 incident when the Parliament House was attacked, Mr Advani said the holocaust would have been far worse than September 11 if the five terrorists had succeeded in entering the building. UNI

Unprovoked shelling by Pak troops
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 23
India today denied Pakistan charges of carrying out attacks overnight and accused the Pakistani army of launching unprovoked heavy artillery shelling on Indian positions across the Line of Control in the Dras sector.

Reacting to Pakistani statements of India carrying out air and land attacks on one of its military posts, an Army spokesman here said that there was no truth in the statements from across the border.

India in fact said the Pakistani statements were part of a bigger design to discredit New Delhi at a time when US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was in town.

India said it was the Pakistani troops who had launched unprovoked heavy artillery shelling on Indian positions across the Line of Control and the Indian troops had only retaliated the fire.