Kashmir issue loaded with humanitarian consequences

NEW DELHI (APP) - Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said on Thursday that the Kashmir issue was loaded with humanitarian consequences and not a territorial dispute with Pakistan.
Speaking in an interaction after launching a book on Sino-India relations at the Observer Research Foundation here, Menon said India was addressing the Kashmir issue at internal and external levels.
Internally, he said the issue is being tackled by initiating a political process and restoring normal conditions by interacting with the people while India is engaged externally with Pakistan to settle the issue.
Menon said it was possible to discuss the issue of Jammu and Kashmir once it was clear that Pakistan was no more insisting on dividing or exchange the territory or even talking about settling the status of territory.
We decided to talk once you are not here to trying divide the territory or exchange territory or settle even the status of territory, he said.
Foreign Secretary was not in favour of Track-II process and said it was the usual official engagements both at the composite dialogue level and through back-channel official diplomacy that worked.
Just to clarify it was not track process with Pakistan either, it was straight forward official process both within composite dialogue and through back channel that was working, he said.
Referring to building a political consensus in the country to settle issues with neighbouring countries, Menon said such stage has not yet come.
With China it is a boundary problem and the question is where the two states would draw a line. It is not so much to do with either public opinion or redressing human needs, he said and added with Pakistan the issue is not the territorial.
Referring to the patterns of incursions on India-China border, he said, "I do not see the kind of changes in the pattern that would suggest that either side is determined to change the status quo or something fundamental has changed for the worse."
Meanwhile, Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday claimed that "militants were receiving resources from Islamabad" and the "infrastructure of Pakistan was being used in terror attacks in the country".
"Terrorists who attack in different places are receiving resources from Pakistan and its infrastructure is being used by them," Mukherjee told reporters while campaigning here in Murshidabad district.
He attributed the origin of the present situation in Pakistan to its long history of military rule.
"Though Pakistani people want democracy, their efforts are sometimes thwarted...The base of democracy in that country is very weak," he said.
Meanwhile, Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma said that India's reply to the 30 questions posed by Pakistan on the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks was "enough" to take tangible action.
"The evidence given to Pakistan earlier was enough and we will wait to see what tangible action they take to dismantle the terror networks operating on their soil and bring perpetrators of 26/11 to justice," Sharma said replying to a question on reports that Pakistan was unhappy over India's responses.
Sharma said India wishes to see a stable democracy in Pakistan, but volatility in the country and presence of "terror networks" remain a threat and challenge.
Meanwhile, having provided more evidence to Pakistan on the Mumbai attacks, India on Wednesday said it expects Islamabad to share concrete information regarding its probe into the carnage as the details received so far have been "very sketchy".
New Delhi said it has given ample evidence to Islamabad to act against those behind the 26/11 carnage and will continue to "encourage" the neighbour to fulfil its commitments altogether.
The information shared by Pakistan so far is "very sketchy", sources here said, adding that India wants more concrete details about Pakistani probe.