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No talks till all Pakistanis leave: PM

Applauding the Indian soldiers for winning back the land occupied by Pakistan in the Kargil sector of Jammu & Kashmir, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today said the country would have to ensure that such conflicts never recur.

"While we have been extending a hand of friendship, we also know how to tackle those who do not accept it," Vajpayee said at an exhibition soccer match between Indian cricketers and film stars to collect funds for the soldiers.

He said the victorious Indian Army is moving ahead in Kargil and has recovered the land that was intruded upon. "Whatever area remains will also be recaptured soon," he added.

Accompanied by Defence Minister George Fernandes, Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan, former Indian cricket captain Kapil Dev and others at the packed Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Vajpayee said the country would have to be ever prepared to guard against such incursions.

Praising the cricketers, film stars and Sahara India Parivar for organising the fund-collection venture, he said everybody has to ensure that India becomes so strong that nobody will ever dare to attack it again.

On a huge white board set up at the stadium, the prime minister wrote Jai Jawan, Zindabad (Victory to the Soldier, Long Live [the Soldier]!). Fernandes and Mahajan also wrote messages for the troops.

With Sachin Tendulkar and B K Venkatesh Prasad pumping in goals rather easily, the Indian cricketers beat the film stars.

The cricketers, captained by Ajay Jadeja, included Robin Singh, Amay Khurasia, Harbhajan Singh, Vinod Kambli, Nayan Mongia, Rahul Dravid, Syed Saba Karim and Nikhil Chopra.

Mithun Chakraborty, Govinda, Saif Ali Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Akshaye Khanna, Sanjay Dutt and Gulshan Grover were among those who turned out for the film stars' team.

Earlier, addressing the Bharatiya Janata Party Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Morcha, Vajpayee said there could be no negotiations till the Pakistanis were cleared out from Kargil, and even then India would see that it does not lose any territory during talks.

Vajpayee said India had always won wars but lost land subsequently on the negotiating table. (The reference was to the Tashkent Accord of 1965 and the Simla Agreement, 1972.) "This time we will not let our land go. We will not let the sacrifices of our brave martyrs go waste."

Praising the defence forces, the prime minister said the situation would be clear in a few days. "India wants peace and knows the ways to achieve it. The enemy has to choose either friendship or defeat. We hope they will take the right decision."

UNI

The Kargil Crisis

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