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Pak. denies charges on UAV intrusion

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD Dec. 8 . Pakistan today denied Indian charges that one of its unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) had flown over Indian territory, across the Line of Control (LoC), supported by heavy mortar and machinegun fire from the its Army.

The Pakistan Information Minister, Shiekh Rashid, described the Indian allegations about the drone as "baseless" and said that that it was India, which was in the habit of resorting to unprovoked fire across the LoC.

He was responding to a report that a drone was seen in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir and it had returned to the Pakistani side of the LoC after being fired upon by the Indian troops.

In a separate development, the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, accused the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of indulging in communal and anti-Pakistan propaganda in Gujarat for electoral gains.

Mr. Kasuri told journalists that some leaders of the Vajpayee Government were engaged in spreading venom against Pakistan and its President, Pervez Musharraf, for narrow political gains and it did not augur well for the relations between the two counties.

Pakistan was capable of answering such "crude propaganda".

However, at the same time Islamabad would not stoop to such a level. Last week, the Mr. Kasuri accused the Deputy Prime Minister, L. K. Advani, of being blatant in his Gujarat election campaign.

In another development, the Hizbul Mujahideen said two of its members, including a senior commander, were killed in Kashmir in a clash with the security forces on Saturday.

A Hizbul spokesman said in Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), that Mohammad Sharif, alias Humza Faridee, who died in the clash, was a commander.

"The killing of Sharif is to some extent a setback to the group, but it will not affect the ongoing movement for the freedom of Kashmir," he said.

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