02/22/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09720

PAKISTAN, INDIA AND KASHMIR

For more than fifty years, relations between the United States and Pakistan have been friendly. The events that followed the September 11^th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have demonstrated the depths of this friendship. Since the attacks, Pakistan has played a major role in the global war against terrorism, in particular by cooperating with the American-led coalition in Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, met in Washington with President George W. Bush. The Pakistani leader presented a vision of his country in the future as a modern democratic Islamic society, providing prosperity for its citizens. The U-S is committed to a partnership with Pakistan to pursue that vision.

Both Pakistan and India are cooperating with the U-S in the war against terrorism. But the two remain divided over Kashmir -- a flash-point for half a century. A suicide attack on the Srinagar, Kashmir, state legislative assembly in October led to the deaths of more than thirty people. In December, a terrorist attack on India’s parliament killed nine policemen and staffers. India blamed both attacks on Pakistan-based extremists.

Those attacks were meant to strike at India’s democracy and kill its leaders. But they were also meant to undermine Pakistan and the worldwide campaign against terrorism by provoking a conflict between India and Pakistan. President Musharraf condemned the attacks and said he would move against the terrorists who committed them. He banned four extremist organizations operating in Pakistan. Two, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, have been accused by India of participating in the attack on India’s parliament.

President Musharraf said that he unequivocally rejects terrorism and that the solution to the Kashmir problem lies in dialogue. As President Bush said, that is the only way the Kashmir issue is going to be resolved.