(voa) – Nuclear arch-rivals Pakistan and India say they want to step back from their military face-off and begin talks aimed at defusing military tensions along their common border.
Neither side has yet pulled troops from the disputed border. But Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Sunday that Pakistan wants peace, and a senior Indian cabinet minister said India hopes Washington will exert enough influence in the region to prevent military conflict.
The two countries have traded accusations since a deadly attack on the Indian parliament earlier this month, and they are now in the midst of their biggest military buildup in 15 years.
Reports from the region say tens of thousands off Indians have fled their homes in the disputed Kashmir region as troop buildups continued over the past two days.
Indian Law Minister Arun Jaitley told CNN today that India will abide by its promise not to make first use of nuclear weapons if conflict breaks out.
In a separate CNN interview, Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said the Islamabad government has moved against suspected terrorists with alleged connections to the New Delhi attack, as India has demanded. He said more than 50 people have been placed under protective custody while authorities await enough of what he called credible, objective and usable evidence for prosecutions to begin.
In Washington today, Indian ambassador Lalit Mansingh welcomed Pakistan’s move to arrest two nuclear scientists and an industrialist with alleged ties to terrorist organizations. But speaking on Fox Television, Mr. Mansingh said Islamabad’s efforts were, in his words, “not good enough.”
Mr. Mansingh said New Delhi knows the leaders of three organizations named by the United States in September as heads of suspected terrorist organizations. But he said he had no information that any action had been taken by Islamabad to detain the suspects.
General Musharraf and Mr. Vajpayee both are scheduled to attend a South Asian regional summit in Kathmandu, beginning on Friday, but as of now there are no plans for them to meet directly in Nepal.
There were no reports of major clashes overnight along the Indian-Pakistani border, where both countries have concentrated thousands of troops. Several people have died in recent days along the Line of Control dividing the two sides in the disputed Kashmir region, and thousands of civilian have been evacuated from border villages.
