Centre happy with US-UK stand on LoC infiltration

US Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill as well as British High Commissioner Rob Young today called on Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra to express their governments condemnation of the massacre, which also for the first time directly linked Pakistan with the violence in J-K.

8216;8216;Pakistan should also do its utmost to discourage any acts of violence by militants in Kashmir,8217;8217; the statement said, for the first time delinking the Western clamour for dialogue between Delhi and Islamabad with the condemnation of terrorism.

Sources in London said that US Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw are of the view that dialogue 8216;8216;is necessary to stabilise the situation in the short term and solve the Kashmir issue in the long-term.8217;8217;

Significantly, this is also the first time that the Bush administration has formally called for the sanctity of the LoC. 8216;8216;Violence will not solve Kashmir8217;s problems. The LoC should be strictly respected and Pakistan should fulfil its commitments to stop infiltration,8217;8217; the statement said.

The statement, which drew appreciation from MEA8217;s spokesperson Navtej Sarna, seemed to have satisfied New Delhi that the Iraq war had not distracted the big powers from focussing their attention to continuing terrorism from Pakistan.

8216;8216;We welcome the fact that the US and UK recognise that Pakistan has not fulfilled the commitment made to the two countries in June last year to stop infiltration across the LoC. It repudiates Pakistan8217;s assertion that it has no responsibility for violence in J-K,8217;8217; Sarna said.