JAMMU/NEW DELHI, 1 November — India’s military stands ready to thwart any challenge to national security and territorial integrity by arch rival Pakistan, a senior military official said yesterday.
Lt. Gen. R.K. Nanavatty, who heads the army’s strategic Northern Command, told reporters here that while New Delhi and Islamabad both possessed nuclear weapons, “space still exists” for limited conventional operations.
“While every effort must be made politically, diplomatically and economically to deter Pakistan, we must remain prepared to exercise the military option,” Nanavatty added. India and Pakistan conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests in 1998, marking their entry into a select club of countries possessing nuclear weapons.
Nanavatty said India was committed to observing restraint along its de facto border with Pakistan in Kashmir, but warned: “We have the right to take military action against Pakistan Army and terrorists.”
Nanavatty’s comments came a day after US Secretary of State Colin Powell urged New India and Pakistan to avoid a “flare up” over Kashmir — the cause of two of the three wars between the South Asian rivals since 1947.
Powell, who visited Delhi and Islamabad earlier this month to persuade both countries to give their full concentration to the US-led war on terrorism, said he believed his mission had been largely successful, but acknowledged continued deep concern about the situation over the disputed Himalayan region.
Delhi, which is fighting an insurgency in Kashmir, accuses Pakistan of arming, funding and training activists and sending them into Indian-administered Kashmir — charges denied by Islamabad.
However, separatists in Kashmir welcomed yesterday criticisms of India and Pakistan by the UN’s chief military observer in the divided Himalayan region.
“It is great that the UN has opened its mouth after 50 years,” said separatist leader Shabir Shah.
Shah said it was “high time” for India and Pakistan to resolve the issue of Kashmir once and for all.
“The United States and United Nations will have to bring the two countries to the table to resolve this in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people.”
Shah’s remarks followed Monday’s unexpected statement by Maj. Gen. Hermann K. Loidolt, head of the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan, who accused both countries of heightening regional tensions by “playing political games” over Kashmir.
His comments triggered an angry reaction from Delhi which termed them “totally unwarranted and uncalled for.”
But separatist groups, which have long been calling for a greater UN role in Kashmir, said Loidolt was simply voicing what was already common knowledge.
“It was a realistic statement,” said Bashir Bhat, a senior leader of the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front. “The UN should play its role in resolving Kashmir,” said Bhat, whose group wants the re-unification and independence of the Kashmiri zones currently under the control of India, Pakistan and China. Pro-Pakistan groups also welcomed Loidolt’s remarks.
“It is never too late to mend. If the UN has now realized its duties, it is a welcome sign,” said a press release issued by the political Islamic Students League.
Meanwhile, five front-rank leaders of a pro-independence group in Kashmir were arrested by police yesterday, Kashmir’s main separatist alliance said. Those arrested were all members of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front and included the group’s acting chairman, Bashir Bhat, and vice chairman Javed Mir
