Violence up in Valley: US

The United States has said it retains confidence in Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s ability to curb infiltration of militants in...

The United States has said it retains confidence in Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s ability to curb infiltration of militants into Jammu and Kashmir, despite new violence in the divided region.

The US hoped that a peaceful Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir would resume Indo-Pak dialogue. ‘‘It is clear that the incidents of violence are on the upswing,’’ US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said in an interview to PBS television’s ‘‘news hour with Jim Lehrer’’ yesterday.

‘‘The cross-border incursions are up from the end of June,’’ he said in reply to a question whether infiltration into India had increased recently.

Story continues below this ad

Asked if Musharraf was doing everything possible to stop terrorism in Kashmir, Armitage said ‘‘only Musharraf and his colleagues know for sure, but we think that he is exerting some efforts.’’

On the issue of Pakistani support to terror attack in India, the American diplomat said ‘‘…I don’t want to get into what we know and and what we don’t know. .. However, there are jehadis that are outside the control of the Pakistani authority. There are also jehadis that were already existent in Kashmir. They don’t need to cross the Line Of Control to cause trouble.’’ He said a bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan was possible if Assembly elections in J-K was allowed to be peaceful.

‘‘They (India) have said that if the elections could proceed free of violence from Pakistan, then they would entertain a dialogue. President Musharraf, for his part, told me that his government’s position would was to condemn violence during any electoral season,’’ Armitage said.

The comments came after Armitage returned here from a tour of Asia, during which he visited Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, China, and Japan.