India Talks of War, World Watches Warily Thu May 23,12:52 AM ET By Y.P. Rajesh and Raja Asghar
NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - India's prime minister meets his security advisers in disputed Kashmir (news - web sites) on Thursday after telling troops confronting Pakistani forces to prepare for action after a week of cross-border firing. Atal Behari Vajpayee, on a three-day visit to the state at the root of two of the three wars between the South Asian neighbors, has sent extra troops to India's border with Pakistan and extra warships to the Arabian Sea off its coast. With the nuclear-armed nations trading bellicose warnings and cross-border fire, the United States and its European allies said they were working behind the scenes to stop the two sides slipping back into war. "The message clearly to everyone is that it is a dangerous situation and that our hope and all of our efforts are aimed at encouraging them to lessen the tension along the border, both in Kashmir and elsewhere," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters in Washington on Wednesday. Rumsfeld said he had spoken to Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes and expected to talk to him again soon. State Department officials echoed Rumsfeld's concern. "What we want to do right now is prevent a war," one senior official told reporters. India blames Pakistan for attacks by Islamic militants in Kashmir, its only Muslim-majority state, and further afield. A December attack on the Indian parliament in the capital New Delhi triggered the latest military standoff between the rivals. Vajpayee, who meets his security advisers in Indian-controlled Kashmir's main city of Srinagar, told his troops on Wednesday to prepare for action. "Be prepared for sacrifices. But our aim should be victory. Because it's now time for a decisive fight," Vajpayee said in a speech broadcast live across the nation by state television. Pakistan responded by warning India against any military "misadventure" and vowing to use "full force" if attacked. Both Vajpayee and Pakistani military leader General Pervez Musharraf are under considerable domestic pressure to appear tough in dealing with their old rival but it is unclear how close the two countries really are to war. The crisis has launched a diplomatic flurry. European Union (news - web sites) External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten will be followed by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw early next week and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in early June. EXCHANGES OF FIRE The sabre-rattling has been matched by heavy exchanges of border fire over the last week since an attack on an Indian army camp in Kashmir in which 31 people, mostly wives and children of soldiers, were killed by suspected Pakistan-based militants. The two sides traded heavy mortar fire across the Line of Control, a cease-fire line dividing Kashmir, in two places on Thursday, an Indian defense official. An Indian soldier was killed and a woman wounded on Wednesday night, he said. Dozens of civilians and soldiers on both sides have been killed and wounded over the past week. The two nations have massed a million men, backed by tanks, missiles and fighter jets, on the border since India blamed Pakistan-based Kashmiri rebels for the December parliament raid. Vajpayee was in Jammu and Kashmir, his first visit to the state in nearly two years, to express solidarity with victims of last week's attack and boost the morale of India's troops. India's navy said on Wednesday five warships from its eastern fleet were reinforcing its western fleet in the Arabian Sea off Pakistan to increase the level of preparation in the area. Pakistan, while warning India it would use full force if attacked, reiterated a pledge made by Musharraf in January, saying it would not allow its territory to be used for terrorist activity -- a key Indian demand to end the standoff. Pakistani analysts said Wednesday's pledge by Islamabad went further than earlier assurances as it was Pakistan's first public commitment not to permit terrorist activity from the part of Kashmir it controls. India is demanding proof of such assurances. India and Pakistan have gone to war three times since independence from Britain in 1947. India sees Kashmir as an integral part of its territory. Pakistan wants a plebiscite to determine the wishes of the Kashmiri people. Violence from a revolt that began in Kashmir in late 1989 has killed more than 33,000 people. Full at: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&ncid=721&e=1&; u=/nm/20020523/wl_nm/southasia_dc_78
