India and Pakistan resolved to widen their peace dialogue yesterday as they discussed festering issues including their decades-old dispute over Kashmir.
India's Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and his Pakistani counterpart Riaz Khokhar reviewed progress made in previous talks, paving the way for fresh dialogue to begin today. In a joint statement after the talks in New Delhi, the pair said talks had been "productive ... Several useful ideas and suggestions were made by both sides."
PHOTO: AP
India's External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh and Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri were scheduled to meet in New Delhi today and tomorrow.
"The Foreign Secretaries discussed ways of taking the process forward," the statement said. "They would be reporting to the foreign ministers with the recommendation that the composite dialogue should be continued with a view to further deepening and broadening the engagement between the two sides."
At the heart of India-Pakistan tensions is Kashmir, where New Delhi has long accused Islamabad of arming Islamic militant groups who cross to the Indian side and carry out terrorist strikes.
The rebel groups have been fighting Indian security forces since 1989, seeking Muslim-majority Kashmir's independence from predominantly Hindu India or its merger with mostly Muslim Pakistan. More than 65,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Islamabad denies New Delhi's charge that it helps the militant groups materially. Pakistan also says it is clamping down on rebels on its territory. But India says militants continue to cross from Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
Sideshow
Meanwhile, as the diplomats met to push forward peace, their border guards play out a jingoistic ritual of confrontation for thousands of onlookers from both sides.
The display of hostility takes place every evening at a flag-lowering ceremony on both sides of the rivals' only border crossing.
Loudspeakers blare out patriotic Indian songs and soon the crowds at the Wagah border crossing begin to chant.
"Hail mother India!" is the cry from 8,000 Indians in a grandstand built beside the border gate, set amid green wheat fields.
"Long live Pakistan!" several thousand Pakistanis shout back from the other side of tall iron gates guarded by soldiers with assault rifles. "God is greatest."
The old rivals came close to a fourth war in 2002 but ties warmed last year, culminating in a summit between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and then Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Crowds at the daily ceremony have swelled in the past couple of years to nearly 10,000 on the Indian side from a few hundred before, Indian border guards said.
Groups of Indian school girls dance in the stands and in the middle of the road as the music switches to a 1960s patriotic Bollywood song set to a modern tune.
The chanting reaches a crescendo as border guards dressed in ceremonial uniforms with tufted headgear begin a goose-step march to lower flags at the gate, stomping their boots with enough force to kick up dust on the asphalted road.
"The line between tourism and nationalism does not exist here," said a senior Indian officer.
"Military tensions are down and the soldiers are relaxed but it doesn't matter to the public. They get very excited."
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
RSS