Powell arrives in India, says standoff with Pakistan has eased

By Beth Duff-Brown

Associated Press

NEW DELHI, India – Tensions between nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan have eased considerably, Secretary of State Colin Powell said before arriving in New Delhi on Thursday.

Just before Powell landed at the Indian capital, the government announced that it was open to dialogue with Pakistan and praised Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for speaking out against Islamic extremists – a notable change from New Delhi’s earlier lukewarm response.

“I don’t think it’s as dangerous as it was a weekend or two ago,” Powell told CBS’ “The Early Show” as he headed from Afghanistan to the Indian capital.

Powell credited Musharraf for cooling things down by condemning terrorism in a speech last week and vowing to curb Islamic militants accused of attacks in India.

“I think there has been some progress as a result of President Musharraf’s speech this past weekend and the actions he has taken – actions that are a direct response to concerns that India had,” Powell said. “The Indians have responded positively; they want to see more action.”

However, tensions remained high in the disputed province of Kashmir, where a bomb blast in a crowded market Thursday killed one person and injured 15 others, police said.

The explosive was planted just outside the market in the heart of Jammu, the winter capital of India’s Jammu-Kashmir state, said the state police chief Ashok Kumar Suri. He said police suspected Islamic militants were behind the blast.

Powell visited Pakistan on Wednesday, where he urged the South Asian rivals to find a diplomatic solution to their monthlong standoff, sparked by a Dec. 13 attack by gunmen on India’s Parliament. India said Islamic militants conducted the attack, blamed Pakistan – which denied any role – and both countries massed hundreds of thousands of troops on their border.

The statements Thursday by India’s home minister, Lal K. Advani marked a change in tone from India’s earlier tough rhetoric.

“The speech which Gen. Musharraf has made is important, is in a way path-breaking,” Advani said after returning from a visit to Washington. “I have not heard earlier any other Pakistani leader denouncing theocracy in the manner in which Gen. Musharraf did.”

Powell also made a quick visit to Afghanistan on Thursday, pledging strong support to the flat-broke post-Taliban administration. Powell is the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Kabul since Henry Kissinger in 1976.

Powell was scheduled to have a working dinner Thursday with India’s foreign minister, Jaswant Singh, and is to meet with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his national security adviser Friday before heading to Nepal.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair also made recent visits to Pakistan and India, and the White House said he spoke to President Bush by telephone on Thursday to brief him on the trip.

Kissinger, himself on a private visit to India to meet with business leaders, met Thursday with K.C. Pant, the government’s chief negotiator with Kashmiri separatist groups.

The former secretary of state under Presidents Nixon and Ford, Kissinger said he was not playing any U.S. government role in de-escalating tensions between India and Pakistan.

“I have come here to educate myself on a few facts about Kashmir and there was no specific agenda of our talks with Pant,” Kissinger told the Press Trust of India news agency.

In Pakistan, Powell praised Musharraf for launching the crackdown on Islamic militants.

“We need a campaign against terrorism, not a campaign with these two countries fighting one another,” he said.

Pakistan has arrested some 2,000 Muslim extremists since Musharraf’s speech on Saturday. On Thursday, police in Pakistan arrested scores of suspected militants in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and sealed dozens more offices of Islamic extremists elsewhere in the country.

India has demanded Pakistan stop Islamic militants battling Indian rule over two thirds of Kashmir. Many of the groups are based in Pakistan, and India blames two of them for the Parliament attack.

India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan province of Kashmir, which both countries claim. India accuses Pakistan of fighting a proxy war by funding and arming more than a dozen Islamic militant groups waging a 12-year insurgency in Kashmir that has cost more than 32,000 lives.

In his speech Saturday, Musharraf said he would not allow militants to conduct terrorist acts in the name of Kashmir – though he maintained support for independence of Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan. He banned five groups, including Islamic and Kashmiri militants and announced restrictions on religious schools that have become terrorist breeding grounds.

India still maintains it will not pull its troops back from the border until it sees more concrete action, though New Delhi was open to dialogue.

“Dialogue is something we have always advocated with Pakistan for the resolution of outstanding issues, but the conditions for talks have to be created by Pakistan,” said Indian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao.

Rao noted that Islamabad had yet to respond to India’s demand to hand over 20 men wanted in India on terrorism charges.