India, Pakistan Tensions Mount
By NEELESH MISRA
Associated Press Writer
AP/Richard Vogel [29K]
KUPWARA, India (AP) — India's prime minister told soldiers on the tense Kashmir frontier Wednesday to prepare for a ``decisive battle'' against Pakistan-supported Islamic insurgents, sending a stern warning to Pakistan as Indian warships moved closer to its neighbor's waters.
Pakistan's top military leaders and Cabinet, after a joint meeting Wednesday, called for negotiations to ease tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals, but said their nation was ready ``to meet any contingency resolutely and with full force.''
Cross-border shelling in the last week has killed dozens and reignited fears of a war over Kashmir, a divided Himalayan region the nations have fought two wars over.
Kashmir in depth
On Wednesday, Indian naval officials said they had moved five warships from the Bay of Bengal to its western coast in an effort to reinforce its maritime defense.
``The warships have been moved in view of the prevailing situation and in keeping with India's maritime interests,'' said Cmdr. Rahul Gupta, an Indian navy spokesman. The ships include a guided missile destroyer, a multipurpose frigate, and three corvettes.
The warships set sail two days ago and are about 500 nautical miles from the Pakistani port of Karachi near Bombay, officials said. India carried out similar shifting of warships during a 1999 conflict and in the 1971 India-Pakistan war.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Wednesday addressed more than 600 soldiers at an army base near the cease-fire line that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
Vajpayee told the soldiers ``to be ready for sacrifice. Your goal should be victory. It's time to fight a decisive battle.''
Vajpayee said that mainly Hindu India has been forced to fight a proxy war with Pakistan, which New Delhi accuses of training and arming the Islamic militants who have waged a battle for Kashmir's independence or merger with Pakistan for 12 years.
Islamabad denies it backs the militants materially, saying it provides them only with moral support.
Vajpayee said his morale booster for the troops should indicate to Pakistan that India is prepared for war.
``Whether our neighbor gets that signal or not, whether the world keeps record of that or not, we will write a new chapter of victory,'' he said. ``Our neighbor has found a new way of fighting, through a proxy war.''
Vajpayee said the attack last week on an army camp on the outskirts of Jammu, the winter capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state, by suspected Islamic militants posed a new challenge. The assault killed 34 people — mostly soldiers' wives and children.
wire.ap.org |
