India reports Kashmir attack

Singh: 'We have to go not by stated intent, but action on the ground'

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The Indian military is reporting a new militant attack in Kashmir, despite Islamabad's new pledge to root out terrorism.

Two suspected militants were shot to death after they allegedly tried to attack a paramilitary camp in Srinigar Sunday. Officials say the militants injured two Indian security forces.

India says it will continue to reinforce military positions in Kashmir until Pakistan fully implements its anti-terror pledge. Hundreds of troops arrived by train in Indian-controlled Kashmir Sunday.

Welcoming Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's pledge to crack down on religious extremists, India has said it will judge its neighbor's actions before it begins a military de-escalation or resumes dialogue.

"We welcome the now declared commitment [by Pakistan] not to support or permit any more the use of its territory for terrorism anywhere in the world, including in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir," Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said at a press conference on Sunday.

India would resume dialogue with Pakistan once cross-border terrorism had stopped, Singh said.

"The lessening of tensions on the border is entirely dependent on the steps that are taking inside Pakistan. We have to go not by stated intent, but action on the ground," he said.

The press conference was the first official Indian reaction to Musharraf's televised national address on Saturday in which the Pakistani leader announced a ban on five militant Islamic groups, including two that have been blamed for the December 13 attack on the Indian Parliament that killed 14 people.

U.S. President George W. Bush phoned both Indian and Pakistani leaders and urged them to continue peace efforts.

Bush thanked Musharraf for his strongly worded speech and he told Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that Musharraf's speech was a positive development and in line with India's conditions for reducing tensions and military deployments along the India-Pakistan border. Bush spoke to each leader for about five minutes.

Militants banned

VIDEO Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf addresses terrorism and the Kashmir conflict in a televised speech. CNN's Tom Mintier reports. Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) On the border of India and Pakistan, people weary of constant uncertainty look to the prospect of war. CNN's Ash-Har Quraishi reports. Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   IN-DEPTH India-Pakistan standoff  • Picture gallery

India has pushed Musharraf to ban the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba, and hand over the groups' leaders for trial.

In addition to these two Kashmir groups, the Pakistani leader said he was banning two rival domestic groups, the Sunni Sipah-i-Sahaba and the Shi'ite Tehrik-i-Jafria.

Both groups have been blamed for a rash of attacks across Pakistan.

Musharraf also banned Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Mohammedi, a Sunni group operating in northwestern Pakistan.

The group sent thousands of Pakistanis to Afghanistan in October to fight with the Taliban.

But Musharraf said that any Pakistanis accused of participating in the deadly attack would be tried in Pakistan.

"There would be a similar need to address other organizations targeting India, as also the parent organizations that spawned them," Singh said in response.

He added that Pakistan's lack of action against 20 men accused of bombings, airplane hijackings, assassinations and other crimes in India "was disappointing."

Kashmir appeal rejected

While endorsing the Pakistani leader's vow to curb cross-border terrorism, Singh said that India "rejects entirely the contents of the president of Pakistan's speech in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir."

Musharraf said that Pakistan would "not budge on its principled stand" on the disputed Himalayan region of Jammu Kashmir, a majority-Muslim region split by a Line of Control between Pakistan and India.

Pakistan supports independence for Kashmir, while India wants to keep the state within its own borders.

Musharraf has appealed for a third party preferably the U.N. to broker dialogue over the issue of the troubled region and said that human rights groups should monitor alleged human rights abuses by the "Indian occupation forces."

India was "committed to bilateral dialogue", Singh said.

"Should the government of Pakistan operationalize its intentions and move purposely toward eradicating cross-border terrorism, we will be prepared to resume the dialogue process," he said.

Singh offered a ray of light to the tense military stand-off between both nuclear neighbors.

"For every step that Pakistan takes will take two," he said, indicating that India was prepared to take action on its sides to ease cross-border tensions.