950805

Rao hints at

free elections

in Held Kashmir

KUALA LUMPUR: Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao on Friday hinted that his government might hold elections in H-Kashmir in the next few months to calm unrest in the strife-torn state.

"In the next three to four months, please don't be surprised if we have fair and free elections (in H-Kashmir). That is what we have planned," Rao said at a political lecture to Malaysian diplomats and senior government officials.

The comment follows a statement Thursday to the Indian parliament by Home Minister Shankarrao Chavan that the government was hoping to hold legislative elections in the northern state before federal rule expires on January 17.

But he declined to specify when the polls would be held to pick a new government in H-Kashmir, where more than 12,000 people have died in a Muslim separatist drive.

The latest spell of federal rule in held-Kashmir, first clamped in 1990, is set to end on January 17.

Minister of state in the prime minister's office, Bhauvanesh Chaturvedi, added Thursday that the government office, was making efforts to restore democratic institutions in H-Kashmir through free and fair elections "at the earliest."

The government had taken several steps to "create an environment conducive to the electoral process," he said in a separate statement in the Lok Sabha, the lower house.-AFP