By Kenneth J. Cooper
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, May 19, 1998; Page A15

NEW DELHI, May 18—A week after India raised tensions in South Asia by conducting five underground nuclear tests, a cabinet minister warned regional rival Pakistan against trying to boost a separatist Muslim insurgency in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan territory at the center of two wars between the nations.

The comments by Home Minister L.K. Advani, a hard-line leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who is in charge of domestic security, were among the toughest directed at Pakistan since the BJP-led coalition government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee took office two months ago. Advani's remarks came as President Clinton and other Western leaders continued to urge Pakistan not to stage a nuclear test of its own in response to India's exercises.

For almost a decade, Muslim separatists in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir -- the only majority-Muslim state in predominantly Hindu India -- have waged a violent but waning fight for independence or a merger with Pakistan. Indian officials and foreign observers have charged that Pakistan has armed and trained some insurgent groups; Islamabad acknowledges giving diplomatic and moral support but not material aid.

While India's previous government had a policy of not making hostile statements about Pakistan, the BJP as recently as two years ago advocated "reclaiming" Pakistan's portion of Kashmir. In the course of broadening its platform for this year's parliamentary elections -- and cobbling together a coalition government of 14 disparate parties -- such references to Kashmir were dropped. But Advani was pointed in his reference today to the disputed state, although he couched it more in terms of Pakistan's stance toward Kashmir than India's.

"Islamabad should realize the change in the geo-strategic situation in the region and the world [and] roll back its anti-India policy, especially with regard to Kashmir," Advani said at a news conference.

Vajpayee's declaration last Friday that India intends to build nuclear weapons, Advani said, "has brought about a qualitatively new stage in Indo-Pakistan relations" and "signifies -- even while adhering to the principle of no first strike -- [that] India is resolved to deal firmly with Pakistan's hostile activities in Kashmir."

Since India staged its nuclear tests, Pakistan's leaders have been debating whether to conduct their own. Before last week, both nations had been considered undeclared nuclear states that were capable of assembling nuclear weapons but had not yet done so. Over the weekend, Pakistani Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan said that it was only a matter of time before Pakistan detonates nuclear devices for the first time, despite diplomatic pressure from the United States and Japan as well as the threat of what could be damaging economic sanctions.

In London, President Clinton spoke by telephone today with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, making a direct appeal to Pakistan not to test a nuclear device. Clinton, joined in the call by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, spoke for about 30 minutes with the Pakistani leader and laid out the case for not testing but received no assurances from Sharif, according to White House Press Secretary Michael McCurry. Sharif described "the difficult situation he faces" as he decides what to do, McCurry said.

McCurry said that Clinton and Blair "described the isolation that India faces in the international community as a result of having launched this test and suggested that Pakistan might emerge stronger and with an even better security standing if it elected to go the no-testing route."

McCurry said Sharif did not express the same concerns that some others have about the failure of many countries to impose sanctions or take other tough action against India because of the tests. Sharif "actually indicated that he was aware of the very swift condemnation that had been made of India by other governments," McCurry said.

Before the call, Clinton held out the hope that Pakistan would benefit by not testing. "I'd like to talk to the Pakistani prime minister, not because I think I can pressure him into" not testing, he said. "I don't think for a moment I can do that -- but just because I would like to express my personal conviction about this in a way that I hope would allow them to think about it."

Japan's envoy to Islamabad, Siichiro Noboru, urged Sharif and Khan to refrain from testing but said got no assurances. "We didn't say clearly that we will suspend all aid," said Noboru, whose country is Pakistan's biggest aid donor. "We share the concern held by the Pakistan government that the testing by India presented a serious threat to Pakistani security."

India's Advani spoke to reporters after meeting with Defense Minister George Fernandes, the chief minister of India's Jammu and Kashmir state, Farooq Abdullah, and other top officials to discuss the development of new plans to counter the insurgency. Word has circulated in military circles here that the government has considered intensive "cordon and search" operations to capture foreign militants said to have crossed the Pakistani border into India.

Already, India has deployed several hundred thousand soldiers, policemen and members of other security forces to patrol Kashmir. Since the insurgency began in late 1989, at least 13,000 people have been killed, according to the Indian government, a toll that human rights group say is higher.

Government counterinsurgency operations have quelled the violence enough to allow elections to install Abdullah's government in 1996 and to begin the first tentative moves to revive what was once a thriving tourist trade in the lush Kashmir valley and surrounding mountains.

Abdullah also took a tough stance toward Pakistan. "The time has come to show them our strength," he said.

Staff writer Dan Balz in London contributed to this report.