The Washington Post
By Glenn Kessler

Islamic militants increasingly have begun to cross into the disputed region of Indian-controlled Kashmir, reversing the decline seen after Pakistan in June pledged a permanent end to infiltrations, Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said in an interview yesterday.

Sinha, speaking over breakfast in his hotel suite before he met with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell at the State Department, accused Islamabad of deliberately allowing militants to cross the border, known as the line of control, in order to disrupt legislative assembly polls which start on Sept. 16 in Kashmir.

"Our information is that Pakistan is trying its best to see that the elections are disrupted and violence takes place," Sinha said, adding that it was a "sign of desperation" by Pakistan.

Pakistan, which has laid claim to the mostly Muslim territory, has denounced the elections as a sham. Sinha, who said India had "intercepts" demonstrating the complicity of the Pakistani government, said violence would allow Pakistan to "go out and say the elections have not been legitimate. That is their game plan."

India and Pakistan, both nuclear powers, have fought two wars over Kashmir and mobilized a million troops as tension rose over the territory earlier this year. Sinha declined to say how India would respond if the infiltrations continue. "India will tackle the problem in the best possible manner," he said. "I can't give you a time frame for what our responses will be."

Sinha said that although the infiltrations declined in June, after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf pledged to Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage they would end, they had "gone up very, very significantly in the month of August." He accused the Pakistani army of providing "covering fire" for militants seeking to enter Kashmir, as well as providing funding and training.

Musharraf is currently visiting the United States. Asad Hayauddin, a spokesman for the Pakistani embassy in Washington, said that Musharraf in media interviews this week has said "there is nothing going on on the line of control."

Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999, has formed close links with the Bush administration since the Sept. 11 attacks through his aid in the war against al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Bush administration officials have been reluctant to criticize him, even as he has taken steps to tighten his grip on power before National Assembly elections Oct. 10.

When Armitage visited Islamabad on Aug. 24, he said he accepted Musharraf's assurances that he was not aiding the militants. But yesterday, after meeting with Sinha, Powell did not restate the U.S. position that infiltrations had been reduced. Instead, he told reporters, "I reaffirmed to the minister that we would continue to press the Pakistani government to do everything possible to stop the cross-border infiltration."

Powell also said U.S. officials had warned Pakistan not to interfere in the Indian elections. "I reaffirmed to the minister that we have spoken to the Pakistanis about not interfering in any way with those elections, which we expect will be free and fair," Powell said.

A senior State Department official said yesterday that while infiltrations have gone up since June, the administration believes they have not returned to the level reached earlier this year.

In the interview, Sinha asserted, "I don't think anyone in the U.S. administration really believes Musharraf has kept his word. There is clearly a disconnect between the public perception and the private perception."

But he added that the Bush administration is making a "very fundamental mistake" by not fully recognizing that Pakistan, in India's view, is sponsoring terrorism. "It cannot be that Pakistan stops bad terrorism and cooperates in stopping bad terrorism in Afghanistan and continues with 'good' terrorism" in Kashmir. But he said that Musharraf is betting that "as long as he keeps on the right side of the United States he will be well off."