Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=01/04/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-271032

TITLE=INDIA/KASHMIR (L-only)

BYLINE=ANJANA PASRICHA

DATELINE=NEW DELHI

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The relative, month-long calm on the Kashmir border has been broken, with clashes erupting between Indian and Pakistani troops. Anjana Pasricha

reports four Indian soldiers have died in the cross-border firing.

TEXT: Indian authorities say the clashes broke out Wednesday, at three

points along the 800-kilometer line of control that divides Kashmir between

India and Pakistan.

Officials say Pakistani troops opened heavy fire on Indian positions at

Hiranagar, and in the Laam and Poonch sectors of Jammu.

A spokesman of a Muslim militant group, the Al-Badr, said its members

carried out the attacks on the Kashmir border. But India has rejected these

claims and is blaming Pakistani troops for triggering the clashes. A Pakistani spokesman denies its soldiers opened fire on Indian troops.

The Kashmir border has been reported calm since India declared a ceasefire

in the region in late November. Pakistan had responded by promising to

observe maximum restraint on the tense Kashmir border, where cross border

firing is common between Indian and Pakistani troops.

Kashmir's main separatist political alliance, the All-Party

Huriyat Conference, says New Delhi should permit the leaders of all its

seven key groups to travel to Pakistan.

The Huriyat conference plans to send a team to Islamabad, later this month,

to discuss India's peace initiative in Kashmir with Islamic militant groups

and Pakistan's military government. But the group has been unable to reach a

consensus on who should visit Islamabad.

New Delhi has indicated it will allow the Huriyat leaders to travel to

Pakistan. However, there are fears that India may not issue travel documents to

some of the hard-line leaders in the group.

New Delhi has been grappling for more than a decade with a separatist

insurgency in Kashmir - a Muslim-majority region that is divided between

India and Pakistan. The ceasefire declared by India is New Delhi's first

significant peace initiative in the region. (signed)

neb / ap / wd