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DATE=8/4/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=INDIA/KASHMIR (L-ONLY) (CQ)
NUMBER=2-265144
BYLINE=ANJANA PASRICHA
DATELINE=NEW DELHI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO:  India's prime minister is calling on all 
militant groups in Indian Kashmir to hold talks with 
the government. The prime minister's appeal comes a 
day after Indian negotiators held their first round of 
talks with Kashmir's front-line militant group, the 
Hizbul Mujahideen.  As Anjana Pasricha reports from 
New Delhi, the Indian leader is also accusing a 
Pakistan-based militant group of carrying out a series 
of massacres in Kashmir earlier this week.
TEXT:  Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee told 
parliament Friday that New Delhi will continue to 
fight terrorism in Kashmir -- but will at the same 
time press ahead with moves to restore peace in the 
region.  He says separatist groups that oppose the 
government's talks with the Hizbul Mujahideen should 
also join the peace process.
India's talks with commanders of the Hizbul Mujahideen 
went ahead despite the killing of nearly a 100 people 
in a wave of violence in Kashmir earlier this week.
Prime Minister Vajpayee told lawmakers that weapons 
and ammunition found at the sites of the massacres had 
established that they were carried out by the Lakshar-
e-Toiba group, which opposes a political settlement 
with the Indian government in Kashmir.  The Pakistan-
based group has denied any involvement in the 
killings.
Indian opposition parties, meanwhile, have sharply 
criticized the government for failing to prevent the 
recent wave of violence against Hindu pilgrims in the 
region.  The leader of the opposition Congress Party, 
Sonia Gandhi, accused the government of lowering its 
guard after the Hizbul Mujahideen declared a cease-
fire in Kashmir.
            /// GANDHI ACT ///
      It is obvious there were very serious government 
      lapses in the security for the pilgrims.  There 
      are many, many questions which need to be 
      answered.  What has happened there is 
      inexcusable.
            /// END ACT ///
The government has stepped-up security for thousands 
of Hindu pilgrims travelling to the holy Amarnath 
shrine in Kashmir.
An estimated 30-thousand people have died over the 
past decade in separatist violence in Kashmir -- a 
disputed region divided between India and Pakistan.  
(signed)
NEB/AP/JP
04-Aug-2000 09:49 AM LOC (04-Aug-2000 1349 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.