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CNN Saturday Morning News

India/Pakistan Dispute Might Boil Down to How Each Side Defines A Terrorist

Aired December 29, 2001 - 11:10   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A long history of war between India and Pakistan appears to be repeating itself once again.

The two rivals are making no moves toward a peaceful solution to their latest dispute. Instead, thousands of troops are amassing on each side of the border. As CNN's Ash-Har Quraishi reports, the dispute might boil down to how each side defines a terrorist.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ASH-HAR QURAISHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As tensions show no signs of easing up on the India-Pakistan border, the questions that emerge cut to the core of their relationship.

The December 13 attack on India's Parliament building sparked an onslaught of accusations from the Indian government. The problems stem from a longstanding dispute. In the late 1940s, India was split into two countries, India and Pakistan. The Hindu ruler of Muslim majority Kashmir opted to make it part of India.

Since the split, a separatist force has emerged in Kashmir, a force India labels as terrorists, and one Pakistan calls freedom fighters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who is the terrorist? Kashmiris who have suffered 75,000 deaths at the hand of the Indian security forces, or the Indian security forces that have engaged in terrorism against the people of the state of Kashmir?

QURAISHI (on camera): The Pakistani government says that it does not support any movement that targets civilians. They repeatedly condemn the attack on India's Parliament, saying that that is terrorism.

Still, President Pervez Musharraf may be facing quite a dilemma. Public support for what many Pakistanis call the freedom struggle in Kashmir is still very high.

(voice over): This man says Pakistan should support what is going on in Kashmir. "This is not terrorism. This is the right of the Kashmiri people. It is every Muslim's right to keep his land."

"It can only be called terrorism if they are causing harm," he says. "The Indian army needlessly harasses the people there."

Analysts say Islamabad will have to walk a fine line between its support for what it refers to as freedom fighting, and condemnation of what the world has deemed terrorism.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It will be very, very difficult, very, very sensitive to declare the entire movement within Indian-occupied Kashmir as terrorism. So I think this is a very crucial question today confronting the whole world community, to define precisely what falls within the jurisdiction of terrorism, and what is a freedom fighting movement.

QURAISHI: For now, it seems Pakistan will have to crack down on Kashmiri separatist groups, like the Lashkar-e Taiyaba and the Jaish-e Mohammed. Both have been declared terrorist organization by the United States.

So far, Pakistan has frozen the assets of both groups, and has arrested members of one. Whether these groups will help to de- escalate the latest tension between these two countries and pull them back from initiating another war, is still in question and has yet to be determined.

Ash-Har Quraishi, CNN, Islamabad, Pakistan.

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