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Pak ready to go to third country for talks: Haider

Pakistan has said it is ready to go to a third country for negotiations with India to settle the Kashmir issue.

"We want to give negotiations a chance and we believe in talks and General Pervez Musharraf has expressed his willingness for resumption of talks with India at any place. We have said that we are even ready to go to a third place for talks," Pakistan's Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider told BBC.

"Pakistan has taken steps after steps for the last one year on this issue. It also made efforts to control the proliferation of weapons within its soil and even a ban was imposed on free display of weapons," he said.

"We have devised a comprehensive policy which would come into effect after it gets approval of the cabinet about the display of weapons. We are also controlling the organisations which collect funds," Haider said.

The interior minister was currently facing bitter criticism from the Pakistan-based Islamic militant groups about his threats to ban the public fund collection of the Jihadi (holy war) groups.

On the extension of ceasefire, Haider said Pakistan already withdrew quite a number of forces from the LoC and has declared a unilateral cease-fire that "we would not fire first except in self defence".

However, the Director General of Pakistan's Inter Services Public Relations Major General Rashid Qureshi has said that extension in cease-fire by India was a drama being enacted by India to hoodwink the world.

Qureshi said, "It is regrettable that India continued to deceive the world through such announcements. Instead of responding positively to Pakistan's proposals for talks, it repeated allegations of cross-border terrorism against Pakistan."

He claimed that Pakistani troops continue to maintain maximum restraint on the border. "It means that even if Indian troops resort to firing we try to avoid retaliatory action," he said adding that the same situation has prevailed during the last three months.

"We have exercised maximum restraint and even we have withdrawn our troops from LoC. A question arises as what India has done in response," Qureshi said.

He said India continued to allege that Pakistani troops resorted to firing in a bid to push militants inside Kashmir under the cover of firing. He contended that three months have elapsed and there was no firing from Pakistan at the LOC. In that situation how could militants get into Kashmir, he said.

PTI

The Kashmir ceasefire: The complete coverage

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