Islamabad: Caught off-guard over Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee extending a hand of friendship to Islamabad, Pakistan's media on April 20 termed his offer as "suspect" and a "subterfuge" and counselled a "measured" response.

Not welcoming Vajpayee's offer of talks with Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue and his gesture of extending a "hand of friendship" might be regarded as looking a gift horse in the mouth, especially as he did not demand to end "cross-border terrorism" as a precondition, Pakistan daily 'The Nation' said in its editorial.

Headlining its editorial a "suspect offer", it said, "If India's attitude to Pakistan ever since partition 55 years ago is anything to go by, Vajpayee's offer is nothing but a subterfuge.

After all, he did reiterate the cross-border precondition, and while he did speak of his doors being open to all Kashmiris, he did not mention the All Party Hurriyat Conference by name," it said.

"He has already gone back to the rut of imagining a long line of armed Kashmiris crossing the line of control (LoC). Unless he undertakes to hold the UN-supervised plebiscite, such offers would remain suspect," it said.

Striking a more positive line, the liberal newspaper 'Daily Times' said there would be lingering scepticism about the offer given the mistrust between both the countries.

PTI