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Ending support to terror basis for Kashmir solution: Blair

H S Rao in London

The Kashmir issue can be resolved only on the basis of Pakistan ceasing completely its support for terrorism in Kashmir and India, in such an event, offering dialogue on all issues, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said.

"We have worked extremely hard to bring the two sides together and the only basis we are going to resolve that, I have no doubt at all, is on the basis of Pakistan ceasing completely and absolutely its support for terrorism in Kashmir," Blair said on Thursday.

"And the Indian government recognising that if that is the case it is sensible to offer dialogue on all the issues so that we can resolve what are pressing and difficult questions through that bilateral dialogue between the two sides," he said.

"Now that is what we have been aiming to do and I think Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, if I may say so, made a very successful and very timely visit to India and Pakistan to achieve it," Blair said.

When a questioner referred to a newspaper report that the government had approved arms sales to India and Pakistan throughout the Kashmir crisis, the prime minister retorted by saying that he found absolutely bizarre the idea that 'we should shut down our defence industry in those circumstances'.

He said it was not the arms sale, which was stimulating the conflict in Kashmir. "What is stimulating the conflict in Kashmir are the sources of that conflict that we know about. And the idea that the reason why you have got this conflict in Kashmir is that both sides have got British weapons, honestly it is not the case."

According to a report in the Guardian, the government sanctioned export licences in military equipment ranging from ammunition to missiles to both countries. The report was based on parliamentary answers given by trade minister Nigel Griffiths.

"They show that the export licences covered bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, combat vessels, howitzers and military aircraft and their components," the report said. It said export licences covering more than 200 categories and specific types of equipment were issued for the two countries from December to May.

Terrorism Strikes in Jammu and Kashmir: The complete coverage

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