India Reports Heavy Fire With Pakistani Forces on Kashmir Cease-Fire Line, Border

AP ^ | May 27, 2002 | Binoo Joshi

[TomGuy]

India Reports Heavy Fire With Pakistani Forces on Kashmir Cease-Fire Line, Border

By Binoo Joshi Associated Press Writer
Published: May 27, 2002


JAMMU, India (AP) - Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged heavy mortar, artillery and machine-gun fire Monday on the Kashmir frontier, and fired across their international border, Indian army officers said.

Reports from Indian army officers in Jammu and Srinagar, the winter and summer capitals of India's Jammu-Kashmir state, indicated heavy shelling from Naushahra in the southwest to Dras in the north, extending 175 miles along the cease-fire line that divides the Himayalan region of Kashmir.

The Indian and Pakistani army statements agreed that the firing had extended along the international border that separates the two nuclear-armed nations in Kashmir and southward into Punjab province on Sunday.

The Indian officers said that machine-gun firing continued across the border on Monday in Kashmir, but at a lower level than along the cease-fire line.

Pakistan's army made no statement on Monday's fighting, but reported intense fighting Sunday, including with rocket launchers. The Pakistan army said India targeted several villages Sunday, killing nine civilians, including two women, and injuring 42 others.

Pakistan said it retaliated, targeting Indian gun positions.

The Indian officers said they lost no casualties on Sunday but that an inspector of the Border Security Force died in Monday's exchanges, and five civilians were wounded in Naushahra.

Both statements said civilians were injured and their homes and other buildings were damaged. Dozens of civilians have been killed on both sides during the past two weeks.

The officers said firing of mortar and artillery shells, along with medium and heavy machine guns, lasted several hours on Monday in the mountainous Naushahra and Punch sectors, northwest of Jammu.

The Jammu-Kashmir state government said about 50,000 villagers have fled their homes near the border and are staying in schools or with relatives and friends. Thousands of villagers have also fled on the Pakistani side.

Kashmir, a Himalayan region divided between Pakistan and India, has been the flashpoint of two wars between them, in 1948 and in 1965.

AP-ES-05-27-02 0349EDT

[Lazamataz]

Nuclear war between India and Pakistan before this decade is out.

[NautiNurse]

Whose God will win this war?

[JZoback]

I wanted Gandi yesterday on T.V. and it read like today's headlines

Only it was 55 years ago.

[RayChuang88]

What worries me is that we may have nuclear war between Pakistan and India before this coming WEEK is out. (eek!)

[Stirner]

My fear is before the week is out. But if you assume it's going to happen within the next decade one way or another, then, I suppose, that the sooner it happens the better. Stockpiles on both sides are only getting bigger...

[Lazamataz]

I [watched] Gandi yesterday on T.V. and it read like today's headlines. Only it was 55 years ago.

I remember 55 years ago! I was some random nutrients in a variety of foodstuffs, if I recall correctly.

[bruoz]

"What worries me is that we may have nuclear war between Pakistan and India before this coming WEEK is out."

Considering that the world (and I) survived all of the mega tonnage above ground testing of nukes in the 40's and 50's I wouldn't worry to much.

[bruoz]

"Maybe we can get lucky and India will lob a few towards China also."

That would be very uncool.

[backhoe]

Cross-link:

The India-Pakistani Conflict... some background information-

[Gorzaloon]

Whose God will win this war?

I wonder if Oppenheiner was prescient at the Trinity Test, when he quoted from the Bhagavad Gita:

"If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst upon the sky, that would be as the splendor of the Mighty One...

And Shiva assumed his many armed form, and said,'Now I am become Death, shatterer of worlds'".

(I may have mangled it a little, I have not read this in decades).

[NautiNurse]

You have a fabulous memory!

Here's an excerpt from an Oppenheimer bio J. Robert Oppenheimer:

The [first a-bomb] test, code-named "Trinity," took place on July 16.
It exploded with a force equivalent of 18,000 tons of TNT.
Recalling the scene, Oppenheimer said: "A few people laughed,
a few people cried, most people were silent. There floated
through my mind a line from the "Bhagavad-Gita" in which Krishna
is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty:
"I am become death: the destroyer of worlds."

[Nuke'm Glowing]

My concern isn't a war between India and Pakistan; what if the rest of the Islamic world decides to get involved and Pakistan in an effort to save "Islam" disperses the warheads to Iran, Iraq, Libay and Syria. Now we're talking a conflaguration.

[realteeguru]

india should sign a pact with isreal thay are in the same situation

both are the only non muslim in the region and with out thier military superiority would be killed by jihad

[bruoz]

Frankly, I think that the "MAD" principle will prevail here. A nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan is unlikely.

[Steve Eisenberg]

This is one of those totally even-handed articles which doesn't even hint at who started shooting first. You could get the idea that both sides are equally responsible, which is extremely unlikely.

In the fog of war, a lot of things happen which should not. However, for what it is worth, I believe the fire discipline of Indian forces to be far superior to that of its adversary.

[SBeck]

Have these guys, and the world, gone mad? Does everyone who posts here understand that if these nations go nuclear that it will bring in the Chinese that will bring in us that will bring in Iraq and Iran that will bring in Israel that will bring in Russia that will result in an ever escalating nuclear responses?

Can everyone envision the loss of at least 500 million people on all sides, not to mention the very real possibility of nuclear winter?

[SBeck]

Some of us old farts will remember the animated movie Wizards (for those of you who are too young, go rent it). The opening lines of narration began something like this, "The world exploded when five terrorists set off a nuclear bomb."

Sadly, Ralph Bakshi was very prescient if you ask me. (Unfortuanely, there will be no Wizards, Fairies, or Peace as an outome).

[CONSERVATIVE ALWAYS]

Anti-India protesters march holding a models of Pakistan-made missiles at a rally Sunday, May, 26, 2002 in Lahore, Pakistan. Pakistan and India are on high tension over the decades-old Kashmir dispute.