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Armitage here with 'specific suggestions': Indian officials

India is ready to intensify sharing of intelligence inputs with the United States and the rest of the international community, but would not give in to the Western suggestion of foreign troops patrolling the Line of Control, say Indian officials.

Officials said that US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is in Delhi with specific suggestions and not the usual broad calls for de-escalation.

Among these will be the proposal of an international force to monitor the Line of Control, they said.

India has already given enough hints that it would not entertain any discussion on such a force.

A senior bureaucrat and sources in the intelligence agencies maintained that India would consider these suggestions, but 'would not encourage direct third party intervention'.

Though there exists a UN monitoring force, it is not recognized by India.

After the 1971 war, when the Shimla Agreement came into existence, India officially asked the UN to withdraw its United Nations Military Observation Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) that came into existence after India complained to the UN about the Pakistani aggression in Kashmir in 1948.

The group is headquartered in Srinagar during May-October and at Rawalpindi during November-April.

According to available indications, while India would like the US and other countries to assure and ensure an end to infiltration from the Pakistani side, it would not want any of them to play a permanent role in the resolution of the Kashmir dispute.

For now, India believes the US could monitor the LoC through satellite imagery, which does not involve deployment of personnel.

This could eventually facilitate joint patrolling by Indian and Pakistani forces in the immediate future, a senior intelligence official said.

Though Defence Minister George Fernandes had initially dismissed the joint patrolling option, he was convinced about the importance of the suggestion at Thursday evening's confabulations at the prime minister's residence, sources said.

However, senior officials who will be involved in the discussions with Armitage's team insist such an option would gain credibility only after India is convinced that Pakistan has permanently stopped supporting cross-border terrorism.

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