Kashmir blamed for summit failure

Violence continued in Kashmir throughout the summit

NEW DELHI, India -- Indian and Pakistani newspapers have blamed their differences over the revolt-racked territory of Kashmir for the failure of the neighbors to forge an agreement at their summit.

"A chasm too wide to bridge: Musharraf sticks to Kashmir," India's Economic Times said in a front-page headline on Tuesday.

The Pakistani daily The News accused India of torpedoing the weekend talks in the north Indian city of Agra, home to the famed Taj Mahal monument, that spilled into overtime on Monday.

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"India ruins Agra Summit, refuses to include Kashmir in declaration; Indians were not sincere," it said.

But Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh told a news conference on Tuesday he was not disheartened by the outcome of the summit and India would "pick up the threads" and talk in future with Pakistan on the issues dividing the two nuclear-armed powers.

India's Hindustan Times said it was Musharraf's "one-note melody that has become the theme tune for the Indo-Pak summit: Kashmir, Kashmir, Kashmir" that led to the stalemate.

The Indian Express, chronicling the roller-coaster of hope and disappointment that culminated in the summit's collapse, said: "They broke the ice, then froze: Musharraf stands up, asks for more, Delhi says it's too much."

The Express said India's hardline Home (interior) Minister L.K. Advani was responsible for the failure to agree on a joint declaration referring to the "centrality" of the Kashmir issue.

It said Advani believed the declaration went too far and would offend supporters of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party which leads the federal coalition and its allies.

The Hindu newspaper's Strategic Affairs Editor C. Raja Mohan warned that relations now "between the two countries may well get worse before they get better."

The Pakistan daily The Nation said in a front-page column the outcome was the worst possible result.

"It was unreasonable to expect this summit would result in a solution," The Nation said.

"What the failure of the talks signifies is that we did not even agree to disagree -- and that is such a shame," it said.

'The issue ... is Kashmir'

Divided between Indian and Pakistani control, Kashmir is a flashpoint for violence between militants and the Indian army.

Since Muslim Pakistan was partitioned from predominantly Hindu India in 1947, the dispute over Kashmir has strained the relationship and led to two wars between the two neighbors over the territory.

India accuses Pakistan of fomenting the 11-year-old rebellion in the area of the territory it controls. Pakistan, which controls a third of the bloodied northern corner of the subcontinent, says it provides only moral support for the Kashmiri people's struggle for self-determination.

Musharraf -- a career soldier who turned politician when he took over in a bloodless coup in 1999 -- has blended a hard line on Kashmir and its "freedom struggle" with conciliatory language on the need to keep talking.

The visit served to soften the image of the Pakistani leader, whom many Indians blame for a 1999 border war between the countries in which about 600 Indian soldiers died.

Killings continue

Musharraf's visit, marking the first summit since an undeclared war in northern Kashmir two years ago, was held against a backdrop of continued violence in the territory.

Thirty people were killed in confrontations between soldiers and Islamic militants Monday, taking the number of those killed during the summit to 86, The Associated Press reported.

Islamabad always has pressed for Kashmiris to be allowed to decide which country they would join, believing they would opt for Pakistan. India says Kashmir is not up for negotiation.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.