Steve Quayle News Alerts

May 23, 2002
Sandeep Sharma, AP

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — As shelling between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan pounded villages along their frontier Thursday, India's prime minister said his country was preparing for a "decisive victory against the enemy" but later took a softer tone and said he hoped for peace.

In Islamabad, a spokesman for Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf warned India against any attempt to launch an attack on Pakistan, saying the results "would not be good for India."

India and Pakistan have massed about 1 million troops at their frontier since December. Tensions escalated last week after suspected Pakistan-based Islamic militants raided an army camp in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, killing 34 people — mostly soldiers' wives and children.

The United States and Britain urged restraint and prepared to send diplomats to the region. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw warned Thursday that the confrontation could escalate into nuclear war.

"India has accepted the challenge thrown by our neighbor and we are preparing ourselves for decisive victory against the enemy," Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said in a statement after meeting with senior military and political leaders in Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state.

"We will not let Pakistan carry on its proxy war against India any longer."

Cross-border shelling has killed dozens in the past week in divided Kashmir, which both nations claim. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region.

Vajpayee told reporters after meeting with his military chiefs and Cabinet members that the situation was serious, but he hoped for peace.

When asked by a reporter about "war clouds," Vajpayee responded: "The sky is clear. But sometimes lightning strikes even in clear skies. We hope lightning will not strike."

Vajpayee said he was aware of the international fear of an imminent war between the South Asian neighbors, but blamed Islamabad for the massive troop buildup along their border.

He said a proxy war had been waged by Pakistan for 12 years by promoting Pakistan-based Islamic militants fighting for Indian-controlled Kashmir's independence or merger with Pakistan.

The militants have staged deadly attacks inside mostly Hindu India and at least 60,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

"For the last 12 years there has been cross-border terrorism and we have been fighting it," Vajpayee said.

Pakistan denies backing the militants militarily, saying it only supports their aims of separating Muslim-majority Kashmir from Hindu-dominated India.

Pakistan and human rights activists accuse Indian security forces of raping and torturing Kashmir's Muslims and executing the Islamic militants instead of taking them into custody.

Pakistan government spokesman Gen. Rashid Quereshi said his country was exercising restraint.

"We are forced to respond militarily in Kashmir because of the other side firing continuously on the civilian population," Quereshi said. "But Pakistan's efforts are designed to de-escalate, not exacerbate the situation."

However, he later cautioned that "Pakistan has a fully functional military which is capable of defending every inch of its territory."

On Wednesday, Vajpayee addressed hundreds of soldiers on the Kashmir border and told them to prepare for war. Army officers responded by declaring the troops were ready to die and India's navy moved five warships nearer to Pakistan.

On Thursday, at least one Indian soldier was killed and seven injured.

The two sides fired mortar and artillery guns across the 1972 cease-fire line dividing Kashmir, said Lt. Col. H.S. Oberoi, an army spokesman in Jammu.

At least 65 homes were destroyed in the villages of Manyari, Pansar and Chadwal after being hit by tracer fire, the police officer said. The area is 50 miles southwest of Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu-Kashmir state.

In neighboring Punjab state, Pakistani troops fired mortar shells on several border villages, said Barjinder Kumar Uppal, superintendent of police. He said there were no casualties.

In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell appealed for an end to the shelling and asked Pakistan to curb the influx of Islamic militants into the contested territory.

Powell is sending his deputy, Richard Armitage, to the region shortly to confer with Indian and Pakistani leaders and Britain's Straw is due here next week.

At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday the confrontation was harmful to the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan because Pakistan has pulled some of its forces from the Afghan border, where they work in coordination with the United States to hunt down al-Qaeda fighters.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2002/05/23/india-pakistan.htm