Posted on 12/25/2001 7:54:36 PM PST by Mensch
NEW DELHI, Dec. 25 (UPI) -- Both India and Pakistan have moved their missiles close to the border and the line of control that divides the disputed Himalayan valley of Kashmir.
Quoting defense sources several Indian and Pakistani newspapers reported the move in their early Internet editions Wednesday.
"Pakistan has redeployed its strategic units aggressively" close to Indian positions, reported The Times of India. Both the countries use the term 'strategic unit' for troops equipped with ordinary and nuclear tipped missiles.
The Pakistani newspaper -- the Jang -- reported similar deployment on the Indian side, saying that the Indians were preparing for a war.
Officially, both sides deny such reports and blame the other for pushing for the war but the situation has deteriorated rapidly since Dec. 13 when alleged Kashmiri militants attacked the Indian parliament. Nine Indian security men and all five attackers were killed in the fight that followed.
In New Delhi, India's prime minister blamed Pakistan Tuesday of thrusting a war upon India, while Pakistan's president told a crowd in Karachi that his forces were ready for "any Indian adventure."
"We do not want war but war is being thrust on us and we will have to face it," Indian leader Atal Behari Vajpayee told a rally organized by the youth wing of his Bharatiya Janata Party on his 77th birthday.
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf echoed similar sentiments when he told a rally in the southern port city of Karachi that Pakistan did not want a war but "is capable of defending itself if forced to fight."
Although talking tough, Pakistan made a little reconciliatory gesture Tuesday when it arrested a fundamentalist leader blamed by India for the suicide attack on its parliament.
Maulana Masud Azhar heads a militant organization called Jasih-i-Mohammed, one of the two groups blamed for the attack. Pakistan also has frozen the accounts of the other militant outfit, Lashkar-i-Toiba and forced its chief, Hafiz Mohammed Sayeed, to resign.
But India described these measures as "too little and too late" and urged Pakistan to disband all militants groups fighting in Kashmir and arrest their leaders.
As politicians exchanged allegations, residents on both sides of the border reported heavy troop-movement.
Even in a major urban center like Karachi, people saw hundreds of military vehicles moving anti-aircraft guns and missiles to sensitive areas to prepare for a surprise Indian attack, as a Pakistani military official said.
A presidential spokesman, Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi, described the move as "an appropriate defensive measure against massive troop movement on the Indian side."
Officials told Indian journalists in New Delhi that Pakistan had made "some aggressive deployment along the border and in Kashmir during the last 24 hours."
They said the Pakistanis also had deployed "medium range ballistic missiles at some places."
"Moving missiles to sensitive areas has increased tensions. We are worried these missiles may be used. We are keeping a close watch," an Indian military official told The Times of India.
To counter these moves, the report said, Indian forces have "accelerated mine-laying operations in the border areas."
Residents reported heavy cross border firing in Kashmir during the last 24 hours, killing several villagers on both sides. Both sides also claimed destroying each other's bunkers and military positions along the line of control in Kashmir. A group of journalists who visited Kashmir Tuesday reported a continuous exchange of mortar and heavy machinegun fire between the Indian and Pakistani forces.
Thousands of civilians have already moved away from the border areas.
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Copyright © 2001 United Press International
India's army will survive whatever Pakistan throws at it and will then march across Pakistan, should this thing go hot.
Musharrif knows this fact, and that's why he's started arresting the Islamic militants behind the attack on India's parliament (to try to avoid war). Pakistan also knows that because of India's greater military, that they have to strike first with nukes and then have China bluff India into backing down (if war can't be avoided); otherwise the renegade provice of (West) Pakistan once again becomes part of Greater India.
Can you imagine supporting Pakistan and US Troops having to fight alongside people who supported the Taliban?
I have news for ya. The U.S. has given the Taliban over 6 billion dollars in direct aid. During the reign of Clintigula.
Man, that's some old-fashioned stuff. Anyways, if either side gets a "false alarm", perpetrated by accident or by some third party provocateur mischief-maker, and them missles are gonna fly, and they ain't no calling them back. Only takes one little itchy trigger finger..... boom boom boom boom boom.
I'm sure it was a typo ... but U235 is the fissionable one. U238 will NOT go boom
Dear Lord, do I feel old. Thanks!
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