August 15, 1999
Web posted at: 12:42 p.m. EDT (1642 GMT)

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From staff and wire reports

NEW DELHI, India -- India and Pakistan marked their 52nd anniversaries as independent nations Sunday with little hope that their ongoing dispute over Kashmir would be resolved soon.

Since they won independence from Britain in 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars -- two of them over the divided Himalayan territory that both claim.

Muslim separatists killed at least three police officers in a bomb explosion and gun battle in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Sunday as Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee warned Pakistan that supporting the rebels would undermine peace efforts.

"They are running their camps. Groups of militants are being sent into India," Vajpayee said. "They are killing the innocents, women and children are being targeted. How can a meaningful dialogue take place in this atmosphere?"

Concern about the possibility of attacks like Sunday's around the holiday prompted the deployment of thousands of soldiers around the country. Separatist groups in seven Indian states called an all-day strike, but the only reported violence came in Kashmir.

Pakistan praises rebels, soldiers

India's May offensive to flush out the rebels from its Kargil heights nearly triggered a fourth Indo-Pakistani war, and the region remains the source of bitter conflict between the world's newest nuclear powers.

Tensions flared again after Indian fighters shot down a Pakistani patrol plane Tuesday along their border near the Arabian Sea. Both sides claim the aircraft was in its airspace.

Pakistan, meanwhile, used its own independence celebrations to pay tribute to the 16 soldiers and crew killed when an Indian jet shot down a Pakistani naval patrol plane Tuesday. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that until the issue of Kashmir is resolved, there can be no peace in the region.

In his independence day speech, Sharif praised Pakistani troops who fought Indian troops in the recent conflict, and honored the Islamic guerrillas fighting Indian forces in Kashmir.

"World powers and international public opinion, which had forgotten the Kashmiris' long struggle for liberty, were obliged to pay attention to it," Sharif said.

But Vajpayee said Pakistan was "isolated on the world's stage" during the Kargil crisis, while India received support.

India says it is adding new missile

In Kashmir on Sunday, guerrillas struck at four places, killing the police officers in the southern district of Udhampur. Police said 16 others were injured in the incidents. Two minor attacks were reported in the north of the province, the scene of the two-month Indian offensive.

Vajpayee, whose Hindu nationalist government lost a parliamentary vote of confidence and faces elections next month, said peace talks with Pakistan can only resume when the militants stop receiving Pakistani support. Pakistan says it provides only moral support.

Both leaders reminded each other of their nuclear capability: Sharif warned of a "jaw-breaking response" to any Indian invasion, while Vajpayee said India would add the long-range Agni missile to its arsenal.

The rocket, which India tested in April, is believed capable of hitting targets deep inside both Pakistan and China. India and Pakistan each tested nuclear weapons in May 1998.

There has been speculation that foreign secretaries, the top diplomatic servants, of the archrivals might meet at the U.N. General Assembly session in New York this October, but neither leader gave a clue as to when the first contact might be.

Correspondent Sanjay Singh, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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