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No talks with militants: Thakre

Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar

Bharatiya Janata Party president Shashikant 'Kushabhau' Thakre has ruled out talks with militant groups in Kashmir and said ''violence is no solution to Kashmir's problems''.

He told reporters in Srinagar today that there was "no proposal with the party to hold talks with anyone in Kashmir".

Thakre said the people of Kashmir had realised that militancy had brought only misery to the state and that an armed struggle was no way to seek solution to a problem.

He said that though there had been sporadic incidents of violence after the cease-fire in Kargil, the state government was fully equipped to deal with the situation.

"We want to solve all our outstanding problems with Pakistan through peaceful negotiations," he said. But "by occupying our territory in Kargil, Pakistan committed a breach of trust."

The BJP president said the Lahore process started by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had received a setback because of this betrayal.

He, however, denied that the Kargil crisis had led to the Kashmir issue being internationalised. "It was the Congress that took the issue to the UN," he pointed out.

He said the BJP would not make Kargil an issue for the forthcoming election, focusing instead on national security, corruption and the economy.

The Kargil Crisis

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