| PAKISTAN FOREIGN MINISTER KASURI REVEALS DETAILS OF
INDIAN BACK CHANNEL PROPOSALS RECEIVED BY PAKISTAN SHORTLY BEFORE THE BOMBAY BOMBS
AND DESCRIBES THEM AS "AN ADVANCE" AND "A STEP FORWARD", IS
HOPEFUL THAT AN EARLY DATE FOR FOREIGN SECRETARY TALKS WILL BE FIXED WHILST CLAIMING
THAT THE BOMBAY BOMBS WERE THE WORK OF INDIAN ORGANISATIONS. In
an astonishing revelation that will create widespread surprise both in India and
Pakistan, the Pakistani Foreign Minister has revealed that shortly before the
Bombay bomb blasts Islamabad received written proposals from India which he described
as "an advance" and "a step forward" in the agreed process
of exploring options for a settlement of the Kashmir dispute. In the first interview
to an Indian television channel after the Bombay bomb blasts, Mr. Khurshid Mehmood
Kasuri told CNN-IBN's Devil's Advocate in an interview to be aired on Sunday the
23rd of July at 8.30 p.m. "You know it's not proper that I
talk that openly but still ... we have received something from India. I think
the back channels are working and I know what they are doing but I cannot speak
more than what I have already said ... They (the proposals) are definitely an
advance because for the first time we have received something in writing. So it's
definitely an advance. (However) it would be inaccurate to say whether our two
positions are beginning to merge but we are talking to each other...”
Mr. Kasuri was asked by Devil's Advocate whether this meant that both sides
are now exploring options for a settlement of the Kashmir dispute and replied:
"I can't deny that". Mr. Kasuri was asked whether the
Indian back channel proposals he was referring to were a response to President
Musharraf's concepts of self-governance and joint management and whether they
had allayed the disappointment the President had expressed at not receiving an
earlier response and replied: "The President was disappointed
(earlier) but now we've got something from India and I'm very sorry I've probably
said more than what I should have said ... Of course this is a step forward because
if you won't respond to something how can you go forward?" Commenting
on the paradox that within a short time space there had been both the Bombay blasts
and the back channel communication taking further the peace process and relieving
General Musharraf's sense of disappointment, Mr. Kasuri said that this was "because
the leaders of Pakistan and India both value the peace process". The
Pakistan Foreign Minister also said that he had high hopes that when the Foreign
Secretaries of India and Pakistan meet on the 31st of July in Dhaka for the SAARC
Standing Committee they might agree on fresh dates for the postponed India-Pakistan
foreign secretary talks: "I definitely think so and hope so. I would like
that." Earlier in the half hour CNN-IBN interview, conducted
during the afternoon of Friday the 21st of July at his residence in Lahore, Mr.
Kasuri refused to accept that Pakistan had failed to fulfil its January 2004 commitment
to ensure that no part of the territory of Pakistan was used in any way to inflict
terror on India. He said: "You have the word of the President
of Pakistan. You can't go any higher. The President himself has been attacked
thrice. Would he be supporting the sort of people who are trying to kill him?
The Prime Minister has (also) been attacked. There were 45 people killed in Karachi.
Who was behind that?" In the Devil's Advocate interview to
be broadcast on Sunday the 23rd, the Pakistan Foreign Minister went out of his
way to angrily suggest that the blame for the Bombay blasts lay with organisations
within India and that the accusation that Pakistan was responsible for the blasts
was an attempt to mislead and distort the investigations. He said: "You
know the biggest problem you now have in India? Let me give you advice in your
own interest. Within thirty seconds of anything happening you already know it's
happening from something based in Pakistan. Why don't you sometimes look at what
your own newspapers are saying? I've been following your newspapers. I've (also)
followed The Washington Post (and) what it's said about the Bombay blasts. Your
own people are pointing fingers inwards. So don't (blame Pakistan). In fact you
are misleading your police and you are misleading your investigating agencies
... and please don't try and distort the investigation by the police ... your
own media is pointing accusing fingers at organisations within India."
In the Devil's Advocate interview Mr. Kasuri praised both Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Shivraj Patil for their initial restrained
response. He claimed that both men had initially avoided blaming Pakistan and
did not want the peace process derailed. Then Mr. Kasuri added: "What has
happened three or four days later is actually a reaction to your own Indian domestic
political compulsions." In the CNN-IBN interview Mr. Kasuri
was asked if, as a gesture of solid proof of Pakistan's commitment to stop all
terror, Islamabad would give India direct access to interrogate Mehmood Azhar
and Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and replied: "You are asking very
strange things. For example, we have not allowed the United States of America,
which is our ally for the last fifty years, (such access) ... We are bending backwards
to build peace and trust because we have not reached that level of trust (and)
incidents are happening in Pakistan and in India. We need to go towards (that
goal)." In the same interview Mr. Kasuri was asked if the
interrogation records of Hafiz Mohammed Saeed when he was detained in 2002 or
documents taken from the Lashkar-e-Toiba offices when they were raided in 2002
could be made available to India as a way of building trust and replied:
"We need to build trust on lots of things ... I'm saying let's build
trust and a stage will come when we will be able to conduct joint investigations
for what happens in Karachi or Bombay ... I would rather that we move towards
what you are saying. We will have to help each other (to get there)."
If you should in anyway quote from or refer to this press release please
be sure to credit CNN-IBN and Devil's Advocate. Please also mention the Kasuri
interview will be broadcast on Sunday 23rd at 8.30 p.m. and repeated on Monday
the 24th at 10.30 a.m. and 4.30 p.m. | 
