Benjamin Gilman, Chairman
Sam Gejdenson, Ranking Democratic Member
Congress of the United States
Committee on International Relations
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

June 21, 1999

Dear Colleague:

We would like to take this opportunity to draw attention to the legitimate security concerns of India, the world's largest democracy, with regard to the recent conflagration in the mountains at kargil and Drass regions of Kashmir, India. We urge you to support actions taken by the State Department aimed at compelling Pakistan to immediately withdraw its troops from India.

A few weeks ago, some 600 to 700 armed infiltrators crossed the Pakistan line-of-control (LoC) in Kashmir and entered into the areas controlled by India. This recent aggression involved greater numbers of infiltrators and more firepower-including Stinger missiles--than any other incursion in recent memory. It is reported that these infiltrators are Afghani and Pakistani terrorists associated with Osama bin Laden and the Pakistani Harkate-ul-Mujahideen. Ambushing civilian highway traffic, these infiltrators have prevented supplies of food and medicine from reaching civilians in Kashmiri cities near the border.

Even more alarming, however, is the strong evidence that the Pakistani government provided the intruders with military, financial, and logistical support. In fact, there are credible reports that Pakistani military personnel are actually on the ground in the mountains of Kargil and Drass. In addition, the Pakistan military on the Pakistani side of the LoC is laying down artillery support for the infiltrators. In order to further your understanding of these recent events, we suggest that you read the attached article titled South Asia's Tinderbox from the Christian Science Monitor.

What is clear from these events is that responsibility for the unnecessary deaths and causalities as well as the displacement of thousand of innocent civilians resulting from recent fighting falls squarely on the infiltrators and their patrons in the Pakistani military. By acting swiftly to repel this aggression, India has done what any other nation would do if they discovered foreign soldiers in its territory. Accordingly, we urge you to support efforts made by the State Department to persuade Pakistan to immediately withdraw its troops from India.

Last February, the Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif signed the "Lahore Declaration," which aims at achieving a durable peace and developing harmonious relations and friendly cooperation between their tow nations. In this agreement, India and Pakistan restated their commitment to negotiations to solve their differences and reaffirmed their condemnation of terrorism in all its forms. Despite the regrettable events in Kashmir in the past few weeks, we hope that the spirit of the Lahore Declaration will eventually prevail.

Sincerely,

Benjamin A Gilman, Chairman
Sam Gejdenson, Ranking Democratic Member