Author: Sanjeev Miglani
Publication: Reuters
Date: November 1, 2001
India accused Pakistan Thursday
of carrying out provocative troop movements near the border in the bitterly
disputed Kashmir region as tension between the nuclear foes mounted.
A senior Indian official said the
Pakistani army had moved some offensive formations closer to the border,
including along a sensitive stretch of the frontier dividing the Himalayan
territory claimed by both countries.
"It is not dangerous but it is provocative,"
said the official who did not wish to be identified. In response, India
had bolstered its defenses along the frontier, he said.
But Pakistan quickly dismissed the
report as an attempt by New Delhi to blame Islamabad for raising tension
across the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
"This now seems to be a belated
effort on their part ... to put the blame on Pakistan to escalate the friction
and tension," Pakistani spokesman Major General Rashid Qureshi said.
"I think the Indian Armed Forces
have very weak intelligence, if that's the conclusion they have made, if
that's the information they have got," Qureshi said in Islamabad.
Tension has escalated along the
India-Pakistan border in revolt-plagued Kashmir since U.S.-led strikes
on Afghanistan began last month.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf engaged in tough rhetoric
this week, each vowing to repulse any military action by the other.
TENSION RISES DESPITE U.S. PLEAS
The escalating tension has come
despite strong pressure by the United States on the foes, both of which
have tested nuclear weapons, to tone down their hostile talk while it focuses
on the military campaign in Afghanistan.
The neighbors have twice gone to
war over Kashmir.
The official said a Pakistani armored
brigade had moved closer to the border in the area opposite India's Akhnoor
sector in the Jammu region where the two sides exchanged heavy gunfire
last month.
"The fact is they have been moving
(troops) in the last 21 days in trickles," he said.
"Given the tense geopolitical situation,
we should have been informed by Pakistan of such large movement of formations,"
the official said, referring to the U.S. raids on Afghanistan to hunt down
those Washington suspected were behind the attacks on the United States.
The official said until the latest
Pakistani moves, Indian troop movements in Kashmir had been routine and
no extra forces had been deployed.
The two armies engaged in another
artillery and small arms duel in the Uri sector of Kashmir Thursday which
ended around mid-afternoon, an Indian army spokesman said in the summer
capital Srinagar.
He said the firing in Uri, located
on the military line dividing Kashmir between the two countries, was aimed
at giving cover to Muslim guerrillas trying to sneak into the Indian side
of Kashmir.
Tuesday, an Indian soldier died
and four were wounded in border firing in Uri, 60 miles west of Srinagar.
WINTER CLOSES PASSES
Indian officials say traditionally
there is an influx of Muslim guerrillas into Kashmir before winter closes
the passes in the Himalayan region.
Indian officials also said Vajpayee
was unlikely to meet Musharraf when they travel to New York later this
month for a U.N. General Assembly session.
New Delhi has insisted that Islamabad
first give up support of rebels in Muslim-majority Kashmir before any talks.
Islamabad says it only gives moral
backing to the separatists in Kashmir where more than 30,000 people have
died since the revolt erupted in late 1989.
Islamabad had earlier accused India
of trying to exploit the tense situation on its border with Afghanistan
by massing troops along Pakistan's eastern flank.
But the Indian official reiterated
previous statements that the army movements in Kashmir had been routine
and linked with the onset of winter.
"Our movements do not have offensive
content," he said.
Some Indian government leaders have
advocated a strike on camps they say exist in Pakistan to train fighters
for Kashmir.
The Indian official added there
had been no reduction in the level of guerrilla activity in Kashmir since
the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan began last month.
"The level of infiltration is one
(guerrilla) every two days," the official added.
