SECRETARY-GENERAL CONDEMNS ATTACK IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR

 

AIMED AT INAUGURAL BUS SERVICE ACROSS LINE OF CONTROL

 

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

The Secretary-General strongly condemns the attack that took place on a complex, housing passengers for tomorrow’s inaugural bus service between Muzzafarabad and Srinagar across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

The introduction of this landmark bus service is a tangible achievement of the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan.  Its beneficiaries will be the people of Kashmir, who have been divided for decades and traumatized by violence.  The Secretary-General commends the spirit of compromise demonstrated by both India and Pakistan in the course of negotiating this important confidence-building measure.  He hopes the bus service will begin as planned, and that it can help pave the way for additional confidence-building arrangements followed by substantive agreements on all outstanding issues, including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.

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