Kashmir Peace Talks Collapse

A Kashmiri militant group called off its cease-fire with India on Tuesday after New Delhi refused to let Pakistan participate in talks aimed at settling the protracted Kashmir dispute.

Hezb-ul Mujahedeen chief Sayed Salahuddin accused India of squandering an opportunity for peace in its troubled Kashmir territory, where a secessionist uprising has been raging for more than 11 years.

Many other militant groups refused to recognize the cease-fire, but the move was nonetheless considered the most significant breakthrough since the Muslim rebel insurgency in Indian-ruled Kashmir began in 1989.

The Hezb-ul Mujahedeen made the offer of cease-fire on July 24 and India welcomed it. But the Hezb-ul group set a Tuesday deadline for India to accept Pakistan's participation and India refused.

"This peace offensive has not been reciprocated by India, who have demonstrated their traditional intransigence," Salahuddin said at a news conference in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

Salahuddin said his militant group, believed to represent roughly 3,500 fighters, had staked its reputation on the cease-fire offer. The Hezb-ul Mujahedeen was suspended from the United Jehad Council, an organization of 14 guerrilla groups fighting in Kashmir, following the cease-fire announcement.

"It needs to be pointed out that we put our entire credibility of 12 years at stake for our (desire) to facilitate a peaceful resolution," to the 53-year-old Kashmir dispute, Salahuddin said.

India had suspended attacks against militants following the cease-fire offer.

When asked Tuesday if his country would resume operations against the Hezb-ul Mujahedeen, P.S. Bhatnagar, a spokesman for the Indian Defense Ministry, said "The Indian army has to take all precautions and steps to maintain security and safety of the people," said

Kashmir is one of the most volatile regions in the world and the source of international concern that an escalation of violence could lead to a larger conflict between India and Pakistan, the world's two newest nuclear powers.

India has refused to include Pakistan in peace talks, accusing its neighbor of supporting the militants. Pakistan says its support is limited to political and moral help.

Pakistan also says that the 53-year Kashmir dispute cannot be solved without its involvement.

Divided between Pakistan and India after British rule of the subcontinent ended in 1947, Kashmir has been the flash-point for two wars between the uneasy neighbors. In the summer of 1999, the two countries traded artillery fire in the region in eight weeks of clashes that killed an estimated 1,200 people.

Both countries claim Kashmir in its entirety.

Pakistan has been pressing for a vote by Kashmiris on both the Indian and Pakistani sides of the territory to decide whether a united Kashmir would join Islamic Pakistan or Hindu India.

New Delhi opposes the vote, which is in keeping with a 1948 United Nations resolutin.

More than 100 civilians, the vast majority of them Hindus, were killed in Indian Kashmir last week. New Delhi blamed the attack on pro-Pakistan militants.

Addressing a special internal security conference on Saturday, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee once again accused arch-foe Pakistan of waging a proxy war.

"The problem of terrorism that we face is engineered, fuelled and executed from across our border. Pakistan has adopted cross-border terrorism as an instrument of state policy to further its hostility towards India," Vajpayee said.

Both Pakistan and the militants denied the charge, saying the massacre was carried out by India to malign Pakistan and defame the Kashmiri freedom struggle.

Other militant groups welcomed the end to the cease-fire.

"There is no solution but jihad (holy war)," said a statement from Al Badr, a sizable fighting group. "India is our enemy." Like Al Badr, the group Lashkar-e-Tayyab said fighting would continue.

By AMIR ZIA