Last week, when American Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage visited Pakistan and met President Musharraf, he was given an 'absolute assurance' that there is no infiltration across the Line of Control. Musharraf even added, "If there are any militant camps in Azad Kashmir they will be gone tomorrow."

The Pakistan president's words sound strikingly similar to the ones pronounced by his illustrious predecessor, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, in November 1947 when Lord Mountbatten, the governor general of newly independent India, called on him in Lahore. Soon the discussion turned to Kashmir and Jinnah was asked to suggest how to stop the fighting. Jinnah replied that the raiders and the Indian troops who had just landed in Srinagar should withdraw simultaneously.

Till this moment, Jinnah had denied knowing anything about the raiders. To quote Mountbatten, when Jinnah was asked how the tribesmen could be called off, he answered that " all he had to do was to give them an order to come out and to warn them that if they did not comply, he would send large forces along their lines of communication. In fact, if I [ Mountbatten ] was prepared to fly to Srinagar with him [ Jinnah ], he would guarantee that the business would be settled within 24 hours."

rest of the article is at http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/may/14claude.htm

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