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23 December 2001 |
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NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India and Pakistan rushed troops and military hardware on Sunday to the tense frontier where at least three people were reported killed in the latest exchanges of fire between South Asia's nuclear rivals. Islamabad and New Delhi each said they were responding to a build-up of forces by the other as tension mounted following a guerrilla attack on its parliament on December 13 that India has blamed on Islamist militant groups based in Muslim Pakistan. Both countries have rallied behind the United States' war on terrorism and President Bush said on Friday he was ``very much involved'' in cooling tensions between the two, which have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947 and each tested nuclear weapons three years ago. Indian officials said two Indian paramilitary border guards were killed and three wounded when Pakistani troops opened fire on the border of the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir. Pakistani officials said Indian shooting at various points along the Line of Control dividing Kashmir killed one civilian and wounded eight on the Pakistani side on Sunday. The two sides exchanged heavy machinegun and mortar fire at several places along the mountain frontier created in 1948 by a cease-fire in the first of two wars over Kashmir. India, which accuses Pakistan of fomenting a decade-old revolt in mainly Muslim Kashmir, recalled its envoy from Islamabad on Friday, accusing Pakistan of failing to act against terrorism. It is also cutting cross-border bus and rail links. On Saturday, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf called the move a ``very arrogant and knee-jerk'' response, prompting India to describe his remarks on Sunday as ``extremely regrettable.'' TROOPS DEPLOYED Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes said India had moved strike troops to the border states of Rajasthan and Punjab, on the plains south of Kashmir, but added that Pakistan's troops had ``not taken up any battle position.'' ``It now came to a point that India had to take notice,'' he told the Press Trust of India. ``This is when India had to bring its forces closer to the border in both Punjab and Rajasthan. ``These include movement of some formation of strike forces.'' PTI said tanks and artillery were among the strike forces. Pakistani army spokesman Brigadier Saulat Raza said: ''Pakistan is taking appropriate measures to strengthen its defense along the Line of Control and the international border.'' He told Reuters India had initiated attacks on Pakistani positions on the Siachin glacier -- the world's highest battlefield -- over the past few days and Pakistan responded. An Indian resident living near the Wagah border crossing in Punjab, between Lahore in Pakistan and AmriCzar in India, told Reuters he had seen several Indian army trucks and artillery pieces moving toward the frontier. ``People from Khalra -- a village some 2 km (1 mile) from Wagah -- have started moving their families to safer areas,'' said Vijay Kumar, a resident of Bhikhiwind near Wagah. He added that he had seen similar movements in 1965 and 1971, when India and Pakistan went to war with each other. HOT PURSUIT? Although Islamabad denies providing bases for Muslim militants in Kashmir and says it offers them only moral support, some New Delhi politicians have been demanding that Indian troops pursue guerrillas across the frontier into Pakistan. Indian Home (interior) Minister Lal Krishna Advani said on Sunday that strikes on guerrilla camps in Pakistan in response to the suicide attack on parliament would be legitimate. ``Party members have not asked for war but hot pursuit. What is wrong with that? It is legitimate under international law,'' Advani told the Hindustan Times newspaper. Advani said the Indian government was weighing all options and nothing had been ruled out as it considered how to respond. India has blamed the parliament attack on two Pakistan-based groups, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, and has demanded that Pakistan close them down and arrest their leaders. Pakistan has denied involvement and condemned the attack. The Indian army said on Sunday a senior member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba had been killed by its forces in Kashmir. In another mark of sour relations between the neighbors, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry accused Indian intelligence agents on Sunday of detaining and beating up a member of staff from its New Delhi embassy and called for a thorough investigation. |
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24 December 2001 |
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NEW DELHI, DEC.23. India today said that it was fully prepared to meet any exigencies along the Line of Control (LoC) and criticised the remarks of the Pakistani President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, on New Delhi's decision to recall its High Commissioner from Islamabad. ``Be assured of our full preparedness. Nothing is lacking,'' the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Sigh, said after a two-hour meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security. The Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, had to postpone his visit to the Western sector to attend the meeting. Mr. Singh briefed the CCS about the demarche to Pakistan and Islamabad's response to it. Recent developments in Kashmir were discussed during the meeting. The next CCS is expected to take place after Christmas. Today's meeting took place in the backdrop of heavy troop mobilisation by both India and Pakistan. India has already mobilised its strike corps. Most of Pakistan's Army, except its Peshawar-based 11 Corps, has been deployed along the Indian border. Analysts here pointed out that the U.S. is likely to persuade Pakistan not to shift 11 Corps as it is engaged in the task of nabbing Al-Qaeda activists fleeing Afghanistan as well as for patrolling the area. Pakistan had also positioned one out of its two offensive formations for a thrust into the Akhnoor belt near Jammu, Government sources said. However, its second strike corps is still posted along the bank of Indus River. Asked what would be India's next step after the High Commissioner's recall, Mr. Singh said, ``you will get to know at the appropriate time.'' He said that Gen. Musharraf's description of India's decision to withdraw its High Commissioner as ``arrogant'' was extremely disappointing. The remark indicated a lack of understanding about the gravity of the situation, he added. ``I must, of course, first discount for Gen. Saheb's tendency to engage in military malapropism.'' Gen. Musharraf, had time and again come up with ``instinctive reactions. I cannot help feeling that this kind of a reaction to such an important issue is for him is to live in an Alice-in-Wonderland situation.'' Mr. Singh added that he would not like to descend to Gen. Musharraf's level of ``military baritone.'' After the CCS meeting, he announced that India would appoint a full-fledged Ambassador to Afghanistan by month-end. Besides, it would also open Indian consulates in Jalalabad, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-e- Sharif. India in the past did not have a consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif - a city that is dominated by Afghanistan's Hazara and Uzbek ethnic minorities. Forces on `very high alert': Fernandes NEW DELHI, DEC. 23. Indian forces are in a state of ``very high alert'' in the wake of the Pakistani build-up along the border after last week's terror attack on Parliament but New Delhi still does not feel that the situation might spill over into a conflict or a nuclear flashpoint. India hopes that better sense would prevail on Pakistan and that it would take action against those who have been behind the terrorist acts. Maintaining that the forces have always been on the alert on the western frontiers, the Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, today said ``September 11 (terrorist attacks on the U.S.) itself made us take more precautions because after all terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir has its roots in Pakistan and Afghanistan. And December 13 made it imperative to get the defence forces into a state of very high alert.'' Immediately after the December 13 incident, Pakistani reserve divisions and other strike forces were moved to the frontlines, ``but they have not taken up any battle position'', he told PTI in an interview. ``It now came to a point that India had to take notice. This was when India had to bring its forces closer to the border both in Punjab and Rajasthan. These include movement of some formations of strike forces,'' he said. Tanks and artillery form part of the strike forces. ``Our preparedness to meet any eventuality is there. And this holds good for the Army, Navy and Air Force,'' he added. Mr. Fernandes said that some of the Pakistani Army units from armoured corps, which had been earlier carrying out exercises in their parts of the Thar desert, had stayed on there even after the war games were over. September 11 and December 13 had put the whole world on alert, he said. These two dates have made everyone realise that national security was not the responsibility of the Army or the defence forces alone. Army destroys 15 Pak. bunkers JAMMU, DEC. 23. Fifteen Pakistani bunkers were destroyed, two ammunition dumps blown to smithereens and about 25 Pakistani troops severely injured when Indian soldiers opened retaliatory fire on Pakistani positions across the LoC in the Kerni sector of Poonch district this afternoon. A senior Northern Command officer told UNI here this evening that the Pakistani troops had been firing intermittently on Indian positions throughout the morning, injuring three soldiers. ``Our troops unleashed precision firing on their positions using medium to heavy mortar shells and in the first hour, seven Pakistani bunkers were destroyed and an ammunition dump blown up, throwing their defensive mechanism out of gear,'' the officer added. A mortar shell hit the fuel, oil and lubricants (FOL) depot of the Pakistani Army, sending up huge plumes of smoke. The neighbouring country's soldiers were seen leaping out of their bunkers to escape the shelling, he said. ``As a shell hit the depot, the entire area caught fire. That sparked off mines laid by them in the no-man's land near the LoC and their bunkers, which were in proximity to these mines, also caught fire and echoes of a series of blasts reverberated in the area,'' he said. As the shelling continued, one more Pakistani ammunition dump caught fire, sending officers and men scurrying for cover. All those manning the posts and other bunkers fled to safety. ``They continued to train their heavy machine guns on us from behind huge boulders away from their camps while ambulances could be seen evacuating the dead or injured personnel. It was not immediately possible to ascertain whether any of them were dead,'' he said. Meanwhile the Pakistani army has evacuated three bordering villages. Intense shelling was on when reports last came in. |
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India says two of its border guards have been killed by Pakistani troops in a clash in the disputed territory of Kashmir. |
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Pakistan, meanwhile, has accused the Indian authorities of kidnapping and torturing one of its diplomatic staff at its high commission in Delhi. The latest incidents come as tension remains high between the two countries following an attack on the Indian parliament which Delhi blames on Pakistani-based militants. India is insisting Pakistan closes down two militant groups it blames for the attacks. Sustained shelling An Indian spokesman said the soldiers were attacked while on patrol about 40 kilometres south-west of the city of Jammu. "The troops were on a routine patrol along the international border when Pakistan border guards opened fire killing two Border Security Force (BSF) personnel," an official of the BSF told the Reuters news agency. He said three other Indian guards were wounded in the attack. Reports on Sunday spoke of heavy, sustained shelling between Indian and Pakistani troops in the area. The Indian army has asked some 1,000 villagers to move away to safer areas. 'Severely beaten'
Pakistan has made an official
complaint to the Indian
Government over the alleged Mr Khan was released several hours later, after being forced to sign a document saying he had been spying, the statement said. The police in Delhi deny any Pakistani diplomat had suffered such treatment. But RS Gupta of the Delhi police told the BBC that a member of the Pakistan high commission had been caught accepting secret documents from and Indian national. Correspondents say that although such incidents are not uncommon between the two sides, this latest report will only fuel the animosity on both sides of the border. Guarded optimism Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes is reported as saying that Indian troops are on a very high state of alert. But he indicated he was optimistic that a serious military conflict would not start between the two countries if Pakistan handed over those responsible for the parliament attack. He also said that India would not be the first to use nuclear weapons. Both countries are reported to have moved troops closer to their common border in recent days. An Indian Defence Ministry spokesman said on Saturday that it had made minor adjustments to its forces as a "precautionary measure" to counter a Pakistani build-up. Pakistan, for its part, has expressed deep concern over what it calls reports of "massive" Indian troop movements along the border. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has accused India of "arrogance" over its decision to recall its high commissioner in Islamabad and sever transport links between the two countries. Call for evidence India says the attack on its parliament was the work of two groups based in Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. It also accuses the Pakistan intelligence services of helping the two groups. Pakistan has insisted that India present it with evidence of the groups' involvement. India is refusing to do so. The US has been trying to defuse the rising tensions between the countries. President Bush froze the assets of Lashkar-e-Toiba on Thursday. He accused the group of "trying to disrupt relations between India and Pakistan". But a spokesman for the Lashkar said the US action would have no impact, as it had no assets in Europe or America.
India said it killed a senior member of Lashkar on Sunday.
A defence spokesman said the deputy chief of operations for Lashkar, Saifullah, killed in exchanges of fire in |
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23 December 2001 |
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JAMMU, India (AP) - Indian security officials said Pakistani troops opened fire on a patrol near an Indian border post in Kashmir on Sunday, killing two soldiers and wounding three others in an unprovoked attack. An Indian Border Security Force official said the Pakistani troops fired at a patrol near the post at Bain Galahar, about 25 miles southwest of Jammu, the winter capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said some of the troops that fired appeared to be regular army soldiers. He said the Pakistanis were not provoked. There was no immediate comment from Pakistan. Border skirmishes are common between the neighbors along the frontier in Kashmir, a disputed Himalayan province that has been the flashpoint of two wars between India and Pakistan since independence in 1947. Skirmishes have become more frequent amid heightening tension since a Dec. 13 suicide attack on the Indian parliament, which India blamed on Pakistan-based Islamic militants fighting to separate mostly Muslim Kashmir from Hindu-majority India. The attack killed 14 people, including five suicide attackers. India and Pakistan have put their troops on alert along the border, including the cease-fire line that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. India, which claims the militants are sponsored by Pakistan's government, has demanded that Pakistan shut down the two groups it blamed for the attack, freeze their assets, arrest their leaders and extradite them. Pakistan has condemned the Parliament attack but said it must have proof the militants were involved before taking actions against them - something the United States has pressured Pakistann, a key partner in the war on terrorism, to do. On Friday, President Bush added one of the groups, Lahkar-e-Tayyaba, to the U.S. list of suspected terror sponsors and urged Pakistan to take action against the group. After the parliament attack, India and Pakistan have moved more troops, tanks and mortars to the frontier. Indian officials have suggested they are considering a cross-border retaliation, and Pakistan has called for calm but said it is ready to respond in kind. Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said last week that diplomacy is the first choice - and recalled his ambassador to Pakistan - but warned that war is an option. The United States on Friday urged India and Pakistan to avoid any further escalation of tensions and to remain focused on fighting terrorism. Both countries have tested nuclear weapons.
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23 December 2001 |
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ISLAMABAD: The Director General Military Operations (DGMO) of India and Pakistan have no more hotline contact that is one of the source of escalating tension between the two countries at International Border as well as at Line of Control and Working Boundary. Both the DGMOs normally used to have telephonic contact and regular meetings at the International Border but from the last two weeks there is no more interaction between them on hotline, a highly placed defence source revealed to The Frontier Post on Saturday. ÒBoth the DGMOs used to inform each other in advance about extraordinary movements of their troops at the International Border. However, following extraordinary troop movement at the Indian side, Pakistan has been also taking matching steps in self-defence,Ó the defence official said. According to the independent sources, the troops of both the sides had taken their positions close to the Òno man landÓ at the international border. The Indian armed forces have started taking quick positions close to the international border with Pakistan in Rajhastan (Sindh) and Chenab-Ravi sector (Punjab). India has also increased the concentration of its troops at the Line of Control and the Working Boundary. The temperature between the two South Asian neighbours started moving up after December 13 terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament. The leadership in New Delhi was insisting Islamabad to accept unilateral charges that the attackers were Pakistani based jihadis. Islamabad was not ready to accept the unilateral claims and offered to have a joint investigation or enough evidence about the claims.
India, however, rejected Pakistani offer of joint investigation to
identify
the origin of the terrorists.
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24 December 2001 |
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ISLAMABAD (Online): Movement of Indian army in the frontier areas of Pakistan, along Line of Control and Working boundary has extraordinarily intensified in the last 24 hours and the large numbers of Infantry, Armours, and Artillery contingents are being moved up towards the border areas, highly placed sources told Online on Saturday.A senior spokesman of Pakistan ArmyÕs Public relation department disclosed that movement of Indians forces in the border areas of Punjab and Sindh has increased to a threatening extent and some of the contingents were even seen at the fronte line positions. The same was also admitted by Indian army Spokesman and Indian media in their reports, unveiling that Indian army was taking positions along side Indo-Pak Border areas. The spokesperson added that Pakistan Army had been put on high alert in wake of the mounting tension and would respond to any misadventure with full force.
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23 December 2001 |
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NEW DELHI, Dec. 22 - A senior official said today that India was seriously considering military action if diplomatic pressure fails to persuade Pakistan to crack down on Pakistan-based groups that India has accused of attacking Parliament on Dec. 13. On Friday, India recalled its envoy to Pakistan for the first time in 30 years and ended bus and train service between the two nations in a strategy to ratchet up pressure on Pakistan to act against the groups India blames for the attack. The senior official said India has told the United States, Britain and the European Union that India has not ruled out crossing the so-called line of control into the portion of Kashmir controlled by Pakistan, where the militant Islamic groups that India wants banned have training camps and bases of operation. "Whatever action we take across the line of control, if it comes to that, will be after full preparation and in the expectation that it will lead to a large-scale conflict," he said. Up to now, officials have hinted at such steps but not stated them unambiguously. Today, Home Minister L. K. Advani would only say in an interview: "We are watching the situation. No one would like a war." The United States fears that the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan could turn into an armed conflict that would undermine its efforts to capture Al Qaeda and Taliban members fleeing from Afghanistan into Pakistan. Pakistani forces guarding the Afghan border would likely be shifted to defend the border and the line of control if war broke out. In an effort to respond to India's concerns, President Bush on Thursday denounced one of the groups India blames for the Dec. 13 attack as a terrorist group and froze its assets. On Friday he called on Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, to shut down the two groups that carry out most of the anti-India violence in Kashmir, a land that both India and Pakistan claim and that has inspired two of their three wars. Indian officials are pleased with Mr. Bush's actions. But they want to see results in Pakistan. Here in the capital, retired generals and defense analysts say the country has no good military options against Pakistan, which like India has a formidable army and nuclear arsenal. But asked if India is bluffing about pursuing a military option, the senior official said, "This time we are determined to put an end to terrorism." There is now a significant troop buildup along the line of control in Kashmir. Indian officials estimate that as many as 20,000 Pakistani troops who should have fallen back after winter exercises are stationed near the line. They say India has answered by moving in troops and aircraft of its own. Pakistan's Foreign Office says India started the buildup and it only responded. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of India told Parliament last week that he hopes that diplomacy can persuade Pakistan to act. If recalling the envoy and restricting travel between the countries does not work, India still has nonmilitary means among its options. It can shrink the size of its diplomatic missions and those of Pakistan, and take steps to reduce further the already minimal trade between the two countries and close Indian airspace to Pakistani commercial flights, among other things. Today General Musharraf, on a state visit to China, ruled out recalling Pakistan's envoy from India to mirror India's action after the suicide attack, but he said, "We regret the very arrogant and knee-jerk response of the Indian government." But tensions are clearly rising. When the capital's political elite Ñ ministers, members of Parliament, the prime minister himself Ñ talk about the five-man suicide squad that nearly shot its way into the halls of Parliament, they talk like people who have had a near-death experience. It was mostly luck that saved them from gunmen with dozens of grenades, plastic explosives and AK- 47's. Muhammad Afzal, a suspect traced through phone numbers in the slain attackers' cellphones, said in interviews with reporters last week that he was supposed to watch all- news television the morning of the attack and tell the squad when important ministers arrived. But in that quintessentially New Delhi experience, his power went out and his television went dead. He could not tell them that Parliament had adjourned five minutes after it opened and that the prime minister was staying home as a result. An infuriated member of the suicide squad yelled at him over the mobile phone, then led the charge on Parliament anyway, Mr. Afzal said. The second piece of luck happened when the suicide squad's white Ambassador car with the V.I.P. red flashing beacon on the roof crashed into a car in front of the entrance used by members of the Senate. There, an unarmed guard, even after he was shot, managed to close the huge carved wooden door and raise the alarm on his wireless. Quickly, doors to the other 11 entrances into the mammoth circular building slammed shut. The guard and 13 others died, including the five attackers. What has compounded the sense of danger was a similar Oct. 1 attack on the legislative assembly in Srinagar. The suicide squad there, believed to be from Jaish-e-Muhammad, the same group that has been accused of attacking Parliament, rushed into the building calling for the chief minister, Farooq Abdullah, but went to a legislative office instead of the place where the lawmakers gather. Senior officials say India cannot afford to wait for a third attack that succeeds. Mr. Advani told Parliament last week that Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e- Taiba, at the behest of Pakistan's intelligence agency, were trying to kill India's political leadership. The major leaders of India's government Ñ who come from the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been known for a harder line on national security issues Ñ are feeling intense pressure to act, much of it from their own ranks, though there is little, if any, public war hysteria here. "Our decision is that this time we must put an end to this problem," the senior official said. "As the prime minister said, we will try all diplomatic means, but we will not close other options." Asked if this included military options, he exclaimed, "Of course!" Through an unusual confluence of factors, India has unparalleled leverage with the United States now. The Americans need the Pakistan Army to guard the border with Afghanistan and apprehend members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda trying to escape into Pakistan's tribal regions. But if India and Pakistan go to war, virtually all those troops are likely to rush from the eastern border with Afghanistan to the western border with India, leaving the Afghan border thinly guarded. Some experts here say that result may have been a prime motivation behind the attack on Parliament. Jaish-e-Muhammad has the closest links to the Taliban and Al Qaeda of any of the militant groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, Indian intelligence sources say. Indian officials, who have felt in recent months that the United States did not care enough about India's bitter experience with terrorism, are pressing hard for the United States and other rich, developed nations to pressure Pakistan to shut down Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e- Taiba. These two groups alone are responsible for about 70 percent of the anti-India violence in Kashmir, according to Indian and Pakistani intelligence officials. President Bush on Thursday added Lashkar-e-Taiba to a list of terrorist organizations whose financial assets are to be frozen Ñ a list that already includes Jaish-e-Muhammad. On Friday, Mr. Bush satisfied another of India's wishes: he publicly asked General Musharraf to act against the groups. Indian officials had a copy of the news release this morning. "I call upon President Musharraf to take decisive action against Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Muhammad and other terrorist organizations, their leaders, finances and activities," Mr. Bush said in the statement. Savoring the president's statement, the senior Indian official said this morning, "So far, so good."
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