Makes me wonder if they'll mean real war. World is getting complicated:
Vol XXV NO. 062 Tuesday 21 May 2002
War shadow looms large
NEW DELHI:
More border shelling and attacks by militants in Kashmir fed fears yesterday of war between India and Pakistan as the two nations vied for the diplomatic initiative, with New Delhi hoping to isolate its nuclear rival and Islamabad insisting on talks.
Suspected Islamic militants killed two Indian soldiers and wounded six others, while Indian and Pakistani forces pounded each other's positions for a fourth day across their tense frontier in Kashmir.
Indian police said one soldier and one civilian were killed as two villages in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir were hit by Pakistani shells and gutted by fire.
A woman was killed and her daughter seriously wounded as Indian troops shelled villages in a southern district of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir yesterday, officials said in Muzaffarabad.
Pakistan accu-sed New Delhi of deliberately targeting civilians at the border.
In New Delhi, India's Foreign Ministry said that diplomats would explain India's position to foreign governments, asserting that Pakistan is responsible for terrorism by Islamic militants in India's Jammu-Kashmir state.
Pakistan's Foreign Minis- try spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan said Islamabad was ready to allow the presence of independent observers in Pakistani Kashmir to confirm militants were not infiltrating into Indian Kashmir.
But the proposal was swiftly rejected by India.
"The figures of infiltration have gone up," said Indian foreign ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao. "There's no point in seeking to deflect attention by talking of involving third parties."
"We have had pain inflicted on us for far (too) long," Rao told reporters in New Delhi. "The prime thrust of any diplomatic offensive would be sensitising the world community to India's very legitimate concerns about cross-border terrorism."
The latest tensions were caused by an attack on an army base in Jammu-Kashmir last week that killed 34 people - mostly soldiers' wives and children.
Heavy exchange of gunfire and shelling continued yesterday in Samba and Ranbir Singh Pura sectors in Jammu-Kashmir. The Press Trust of India news agency said six Pakistani soldiers were killed in retaliatory shelling by Indian forces. Pakistan's military spokesman, Saulat Raza, denied that soldiers were killed.
Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf will consult politicians tomorrow on how to respond to heightened border tensions with arch-rival India, state television reported yesterday.
In New Delhi, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee met with Communist leaders who oppose war with Pakistan.
Vajpayee is to visit Jammu-Kashmir this week to meet senior military commanders and explore the possibility of some separatist groups participating in the state legislature elections, expected in September.
Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes and the country's top military brass are to conduct a two-day survey of India's tense western border with Pakistan, a paramilitary commander said yesterday.
As part of a diplomatic drive, Indian defence officials were to brief their US counterparts in Washington.
US officials fear a conflict between India and Pakistan could disrupt its drive to hunt down members of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network and endanger US troops stationed in Pakistan.
"The US presence in Pakistan is one of the deterrents to India exercising the military option," foreign analyst K K Katyal said.
Peter Duncan, who teaches at University College London, added Washington would likely push Moscow to tell India to show restraint when US President George Bush meets Russian President Vladimir Putin this week in Moscow.
l Britain's chief of defence staff Admiral Sir Michael Boyce will visit India for two days from tomorrow to hold talks with top Indian security officials, a defence spokesman said. |
