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Pakistan Accepts India's Invitation to Talks
India on Wednesday invited Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf to peace talks in an unexpected gesture aimed at ending five decades of hostility in Kashmir. Islamabad immediately accepted the offer.
Such talks would be the first by government officials from India and Pakistan since they came close to war while fighting on the Kashmir border in the summer of 1999.
"The prime minister has decided to invite Gen. Musharraf to visit India at his earliest convenience," India's Defense Minister Jaswant Singh said, adding that New Delhi is committed to "peace, dialogue and cooperative coexistence with Pakistan."
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would soon issue an official invitation, Singh said in a prepared statement.
In Islamabad, Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Inam-ul Haq said Musharraf "has expressed Pakistan's willingness to hold talks with India at any level, any time and at any place."
"Pakistan believes that a solution to the Kashmir dispute should be found through dialogue and in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people," Haq said on state-run Pakistan television.
India and Pakistan have fought two wars over control of Kashmir since they won independence from Britain in 1947. More than 30,000 people have been killed, the government says, though human rights groups put the death toll at twice that number.
Since late November, the Indian army has observed a cease-fire in Kashmir in an attempt to encourage peace talks, though it reserved the right to retaliate if attacked. Most of the Islamic militant groups rejected the truce and attacks persisted.
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