Sunday January 13 6:03 AM ET
India Tells Pakistan to Match Words with Action
By Myra MacDonald and Jane Macartney
NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - India called on Pakistan on Sunday to match words with action and said it would not call off its military build-up until Islamabad delivered on a promise to end Islamic militant attacks on its neighbor.
External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said Pakistan must stop all movement by militants into Indian Kashmir (news - web sites) or elsewhere in India before it ended the biggest military build-up since the two nuclear rivals won independence in 1947.
``Let there be no further infiltration or cross-border terrorism,'' Singh told a news conference. ``We have to go not by the stated intent but by the action on the ground.''
Analysts said they saw a glimmer of hope for an end to the stand-off between two, after a landmark speech on Saturday by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf who promised his country would not be used as a base for Islamic militant ``jihad.''
But with close to one million men massed on either side of the border, and tensions still running high over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, they said there was still some way to go before the South Asian region could breathe more easily.
``India will now have to give time to Pakistan to see how they translate their promises into action,'' Kalim Bahadur, professor of South Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said.
``But there cannot be an overnight de-escalation in tension when you have the armies staring at each other across the border. Moreover militants and fundamentalists may try to sabotage Pervez Musharraf's plans,'' he said.
Musharraf pledged on Saturday to crack down on religious extremism and promised: ``No organization will be permitted to engage in terrorism under cover of the Kashmir cause.''
The United States and Europe quickly welcomed his speech which outlined a vision for a modern Islamic Pakistan.
A State Department official said the strategy provided ``a basis for the two nuclear powers to ratchet down the tension.''
However Singh indicated the Indian army, whose head General S. Padmanabhan said on Friday it was ready for war, would stay in place until Musharraf implemented the pledge.
``You can't expect as soon as a speech is made, (military) de-escalation should start,'' Singh said.
PAKISTAN ARRESTS
Armed Pakistani police pursued the crackdown overnight, detaining some 130 people and sealing offices after Musharraf banned five groups, including two Kashmiri separatist groups blamed by New Delhi for an attack on its parliament last month.
But Indian attention will be focused on whether Pakistan can stop militants crossing the Line of Control, a military cease-fire line dividing disputed Kashmir.
Photos
Reuters Photo
New Delhi has long blamed Pakistan for fueling a 12-year revolt against its rule in Jammu and Kashmir, which is mostly Hindu India's only Muslim-majority state.
Islamabad says it gives only moral support to Kashmiri separatists, a position reiterated by Musharraf who said on Saturday Pakistan would never abandon the Kashmiri cause.
``Kashmir runs in our blood. No Pakistani can break links with Kashmir,'' Musharraf said.
And underlining potential for ongoing tension in one of the most beautiful but most dangerous parts of the world, Indian soldiers said they shot dead two suspected rebels who attacked them with knives in Srinagar, Indian Kashmir's main city.
An official from the paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF) said the soldiers killed the two when they tried to attack a patrol in a lakeside area once very popular with tourists.
Pakistani police said while Musharraf was speaking on Saturday, Indian forces opened fire on a string of border villages on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control.
Singh in turn said firing coming in from the Pakistan side of Kashmir had been heavier than normal in the past 24 hours, including in the northern Kashmiri area of Kargil where India and Pakistan nearly went to war in 1999.
The two countries, which held nuclear tests in 1998, have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir.
NEW VISION FOR PAKISTAN
Musharraf, a former army commando who seized power in a 1999 coup, had prepared for several days for his speech, as the world community called on both sides to end the stand-off.
Blaming religious extremists for breeding violence, he vowed to bring Islamic schools and mosques under government control -- the thousands of Islamic schools have long been seen as breeding grounds for militants.
But he said no Pakistanis on a list of 20 militants India wants handed over would be surrendered though he left the options on foreigners open. Eleven are believed to be non-Pakistanis.
Singh said India was disappointed at Musharraf's lack of action on the list of militants.
The State Department said Musharraf's speech marked a clear break with the violence of the past, while U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) urged the two countries to talk.
Spain, which holds the European Union (news - web sites) presidency, welcomed Musharraf's promise to crack down on militants. British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) called his stance ``courageous.''
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