MESSAGE BOARD: India-Pakistan relations

July 11, 1999
Web posted at: 2:50 p.m. EDT (1850 GMT)

In this story: Process in motion Fighting has taken its toll RELATED STORIES, SITES

NEW DELHI, India -- Pakistani and Indian military officials agreed Sunday to end eight weeks of fighting in the region and disengage their forces.

Senior officers met Sunday to hammer out the logistics of the withdrawal of Islamic guerrillas, who have been fighting the Indian army since early May on India's side of Kashmir. Discussions lasted several hours, and senior Indian officials say a timetable for a pullout was reached.

The announcement coincided with a halt in firing Sunday by Indian troops, apparently to give the guerrillas an opportunity to safely evacuate from the strategic Himalayan peaks where they have been holed up since May.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz said the guerrillas had begun pulling out from one sector in the Kargil area and would do so in another sector on Sunday night.

"We have been informed that disengagement from Kaksar sector, which began yesterday, has been proceeding satisfactorily," Aziz told a news conference.

"The disengagement from the Mashkoh sector will commence tonight. Gradually the disengagement will be completed in the entire area," Aziz said.

A military official said the process would take one to two weeks to complete.

Aziz and other Pakistani officials declined to say whether the guerrillas would withdraw to the Pakistani side of the Line of Control dividing Kashmir or move to other areas.

"They will disperse," a senior Foreign Ministry official said. "Arrangement for their dispersal has been made."

Islamabad denies New Delhi's charge that the guerrillas include regular Pakistani troops, saying it gives only moral and political support to what it calls Kashmiri freedom fighters.

So far, India says 670 Pakistani soldiers and 150 Islamic guerrillas have died since the fighting began. India has said its casualties stand at 327 killed, 493 wounded and 10 missing.

Last week, Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif flew to Washington for talks with U.S. President Bill Clinton and agreed to take "concrete steps" to end the fighting.

Clinton has promised to take a personal interest in nudging India to resume peace talks with Pakistan under the so-called Lahore Declaration signed in February.

India has balked at what it sees as third-party mediation, something it has always rejected. Indian officials insist Kashmir is an Indo-Pakistani problem that has to be solved in bilateral talks.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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