NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD, 9 June — India is considering returning some of its diplomats to Pakistan and making some “military gestures” to lessen tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals, a top US official said in Tallinn, Estonia, yesterday.
“It’s quite clear that there will be some actions on the part of India responding to the messages I brought” from Pakistan, said US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. He spoke on his arrival in the former Soviet republic after talks in India on Friday. Armitage said he believed, based on his discussions in New Delhi, that the situation has improved markedly. The Indians “are talking about some diplomatic actions, which could include the return of some people to diplomatic postings in Islamabad and some ratcheting down of some sort of military tension.
“They are going to make, as I understand it, perhaps some military gestures as well, prior to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld’s arrival,” Armitage said.
In another development, Pakistan shot down an Indian unmanned spy plane Friday night and summoned Indian High Commission’s first secretary Vikram Misri yesterday for a dressing-down.
US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, attending a meeting with Baltic and Nordic defense ministers, planned to consult with Armitage before deciding when to travel to India and Pakistan to continue efforts at averting war.
Indian and Pakistani forces, meanwhile, exchanged more fire on their frontier, where a million men are poised for war, and an Indian official said three soldiers were killed when troops intercepted suspected militants infiltrating into Indian Kashmir from Pakistan. The Pakistani military said in a statement the Indian aircraft was shot down at around 11 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Friday and crashed near Raja Jang, south of Lahore, Pakistan’s second city. Pakistan’s foreign minister urged restraint yesterday, while its military said the plane incident showed the country’s readiness to defend “every inch” of its land. India said an unmanned reconnaissance plane went missing after a routine flight near the border with Pakistan.
“In the current state of deployment of armed forces, unmanned aerial vehicle missions from either side are a routine feature,” an Indian Air Force spokesman said.
Pakistan’s official APP news agency quoted military spokesman Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi as taking a more strident line. “Pakistan’s determination to defend every inch of its land and airspace has been proved by (the) downing of India’s spy plane,” Qureshi said. “We hope India learns a lesson and stops violation of Pakistan’s land and airspace.”
In New Delhi Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh told US Secretary of State Colin Powell India welcomed Pakistan’s pledge to end permanently infiltration into India by Kashmiri fighters, a government statement said.
It said that Powell had called Jaswant Singh to discuss the “evolving” India-Pakistan situation.
Powell also phoned President Pervez Musharraf and told him that “things are looking better now” in Pakistan’s tense relationship with India. “It was a very good conversation and Mr. Powell told the president that things are looking better now,” a Pakistani spokesman told AFP.
Meanwhile, at least 13 people, including three Indian soldiers, were killed yesterday in a firefight and heavy shelling from both sides of the tense India-Pakistan border, witnesses and an official said.
