NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD, 31 December — India’s coalition government led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party yesterday claimed wide political backing at home for a war with Pakistan as Islamabad said it wanted peace with India but was worried by its neighbor’s mounting military buildup.
President Pervez Musharraf said that, while Pakistan sought peace, its troops were ready for war. “I stand here addressing the people of India... that Pakistan stands for peace. Pakistan wants to reduce tensions. Pakistan wants to de-escalate. Let the relationship between India and Pakistan move toward peace and harmony,” Musharraf said.
“But having said that, Pakistan has taken all countermeasures. If any war is thrust on Pakistan, Pakistan’s armed forces and 140 million people of Pakistan are fully prepared to face all consequences with all their might,” he said.
The two nuclear neighbors are massing forces along the border, their biggest buildup in almost 15 years, after this month’s bloody attack on India’s parliament that New Delhi blames on Pakistan-based Kashmiri militants.
Earlier, India said it too wanted to avoid war although the government had not completely ruled it out. “None in the government or in the opposition is keen for any kind of war. All of us don’t want to go for a war. No sane person will go for a war. (But) if war is thrust upon us, then we should face it united,” said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, struggling to avoid war, called the all-party meeting to seek non-partisan support for government actions and to appease critics accusing him of failing to consult widely enough.
Musharraf has also called political leaders for consultations, press reports said. On Saturday, Musharraf reviewed military preparedness with his army commanders and spoke to US President George W. Bush, assuring that Pakistan would exercise restraint.
Indian Home Minister Lal Krishan Advani said the country would not take decisions under pressure of any country, including the United States. In a live interaction on state television channel Doordarshan, Advani said that although India was closer to the US today that country had been clearly told that the steps taken by Pakistan to tackle “terrorist groups operating from its territory were inadequate” and that the action taken against the Jaish-e-Muhammad was a joke.
Advani said India could fight terrorism faster and more effectively if Pakistan stopped sponsoring groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad.
Late at night Pakistan arrested Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the head of the Lashkar. “He has been arrested for making inflammatory speeches to incite people to violate law and order,” a top security official said.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said tensions were rising by the hour. Pakistan was extremely worried by fresh movements of Indian troops from their peacetime positions to the border, and would have no alternative but to enhance its own presence, he said. Sattar insisted substantial steps had been taken toward cracking down on the groups India accuses of carrying out a bloody Dec. 13 raid on its parliament, which sparked the standoff.
But Bush called on Pakistan on Saturday to do more to “eliminate extremists” implicated in the attack, and urged leaders of the South Asian nuclear rivals to defuse their escalating dispute.
In separate phone calls from his Texas ranch to Vajpayee and Musharraf, Bush “urged both leaders to work to reduce tensions in the region”, the White House said.
But he specifically called on Musharraf to act decisively against groups seeking to “harm India, undermine Pakistan, and provoke a war between India and Pakistan and destabilize the coalition against terrorism”, according to a spokesman.
United Arab Emirates President Zayed ibn Sultan Al-Nahayan called on Pakistan and India to “let reason prevail in the interests of their people,” during a telephone conversation with Musharraf.
In the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, firing continued across the Line of Control between Indian- and Pakistan-controlled areas, with many border areas emptied as villagers fled. An Indian defense official said Pakistani troops fired tracer bullets and mortars along the border in Jammu. At least 60,000 Indians have fled their homes in the last five days. Kashmir Housing Minister Ghulam M. Shah said the state administration was battling to provide food and shelter to the thousands who had evacuated their villages near the border with Pakistan. Indian officials said thousands of troops are being redeployed from counterinsurgency duties in the country’s troubled northeast to the western border. A senior army official said there had been a “heavy” transfer of forces from the northeastern states of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur to join the troop buildup on the Pakistan border.
