While addressing the Heritage Foundation, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Jesse Helms, said, "India and Pakistan, like two caged tigers, compete for nuclear weaponry and missile technology, all the while scratching at their wounds in Kashmir."

"Nuclear technology, missiles, arms of every kind are to be had for the asking in Beijing, which is uniquely positioned to moderate the policies of its neighbours in South Asia." He added, "Instead, it has used tensions in that region to profit on the deadly proliferation market."

He asked: "Ideally, how does the US respond? Ideally, we look to one of the sources of the problem, Kashmir. We work with a portion of the vigour we have dedicated to Middle East peacekeeping to forcefully persuade India and Pakistan to move to a settlement." Also ideally, he stated, "we slam China for fuelling the South Asian arms race, and demonstrate our own seriousness in fighting proliferation."

Meanwhile, John Shattuck, Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights, said, "We have made the issue of Kashmir one of the principal focus points of our work on human rights in India." Responding to a question from House Representative, James Moran (D-VA), as to what the Clinton Administration was doing to reduce "gross violations, particularly on the part of Indian military," Shattuck said: "we have pressed for broader NGOs access, particularly Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch."

He said the U.S. believes that a "negotiated settlement to the Kashmir conflict should proceed with the very active involvement, obviously, of both parties, India and Pakistan. We have taken a very aggressive role in bringing the parties together."

Addressing a news conference in New Delhi, Abdul Gani Lone, President of the People Conference and leader of the APHC condemned all forms of terrorism wherever it occurs and especially when it targets innocent and helpless people.

Kashmiri traders and others in Delhi are facing harassment after a bomb explosion killed 25 people and destroyed property worth millions in a busy market. About 200 Kashmiris were picked up by the intelligence agencies for questioning.

Lone said that even if Kashmiri militants are responsible, the entire community should not be blamed. A Sikh group, Khalistan Tiger, claimed responsibility for the blast. Other previously unknown Kashmiri outfits, Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front and the Lashker-e-Sajjad, also claimed responsibility for the attack.

In a joint letter addressed to the Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Congressmen Dan Burton (R-IN), James Moran (D-VA), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Donald Payne (D-NY), said that the American Ambassador in India should ask India to guarantee the safety of all the leaders of the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC).

India should end the campaign of harassment that has been directed at the leadership of the APHC. India's targets include Syed Ali Shah Gilani, Shabir Ahmed Shah, Yasin Malik, Abdul Gani Lone, Maulana Abbas Ansari and Prof. Abdul Gani Bhat, all members of the Executive Council of the APHC.

The U.S. House of Representatives said that the leadership of the APHC, representing the broad spectrum of political opinion in Kashmir, is committed to peaceful, tripartite negotiations to resolve the conflict over Kashmir.

Meanwhile, the APHC has called upon US President Bill Clinton to play his role in ensuring safety of the Kashmiri political leaders as India is bent on eliminating all of them.

In a joint communication to President Clinton, the APHC leadership made reference to the assassination of the Chairman of the Kashmir Commission of Jurist, Mr. Jalil Andrabi and said that after the incident, the APHC leaders are feeling insecure.

They called upon the US President to personally intervene and urge India to stop state-terrorism in Kashmir.

The letter also underlines the need for an immediate settlement of the Kashmir dispute, which remains a "powder-keg" in the region, rekindling fears of a nuclear confrontation between India and Pakistan. It added that a lasting solution to the issue could be found through tripartite meetings between the government of India and Pakistan and the genuine representatives of the people of Kashmir.