Indian, Pakistani ministers meet as 'ice is melting'

KATMANDU, Nepal -- Foreign ministers from India and Pakistan shook hands, smiled and chatted Wednesday and one Pakistani official said the "ice is melting" between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

But violence persisted, with an attack outside a legislative building in the Indian part of disputed Kashmir.

The encounter between the two men at a regional summit in Nepal was the first direct contact between the two nations since India accused Pakistan of complicity in the deadly attack on India's Parliament last month.

Since then, both nations have moved thousands of troops toward the border, sent home half of each other's diplomats and halted bus, train and air service between their countries.

Suspected Islamic militants detonated two grenades Wednesday near the state legislature in Jammu-Kashmir state, and police said one policeman was killed and 24 others wounded. Jammu-Kashmir is India's part of the disputed Kashmir region.

There was no immediate comment from India on the attack. However, referring to a suicide bombing on the same building in October and then the attack on the national Parliament Dec. 13, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said last week that Pakistan, and the militants based there, did not understand how seriously India views assaults on its legislative buildings.

With much of the Indian public still awaiting what Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes has promised will be "a befitting reply" to the December attack, Wednesday's assault in Jammu-Kashmir was unlikely to be taken lightly.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the two blasts; one was outside the main entrance of the legislature building and the second was outside an abandoned movie theater one-third of a mile away.

In Katmandu, an Indian official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the recent militant attacks had left Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh "in no mood" for a one-on-one meeting at the conference with his Pakistani counterpart, Abdul Sattar.

Afghan comparisons

And in the northern Indian city of Lucknow, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee compared his neighbor with Afghanistan.

"Afghanistan has changed. I assure you the face of Pakistan will also change one day," Vajpayee told a gathering of social workers. "Terrorism will not last for long. This fight against terrorism should be the last fight."

India has said neither the foreign ministers, nor Vajpayee and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, will have bilateral meetings during the summit. Heads of state in the region are to meet as group over the weekend.

However, Pakistani government spokesman Ashfaq Ahmad Gondal said "The ice is melting. The very fact that both countries agreed to come to the summit is a very positive step."