NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD, 28 November 2002 — A top US official here yesterday said India will soon get sensors and other military equipments to be deployed at the border with archrival Pakistan.
The United States will act fast on India’s request for sensors to warn of infiltration across the border with Pakistan, US Ambassador Robert Blackwill said yesterday.
He said Washington would also provide New Delhi with more weapons-locating radars. Electronic sensors can detect human movement and Indian officials say they may be placed on India’s volatile frontier with Pakistan in Kashmir to check incursions by militants.
"The Pentagon is expeditiously processing the Indian Army’s request for significant Special Forces equipment and border sensors," Blackwill said in a speech to business executives in the eastern city of Calcutta. He did not give details.
Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan were on the brink of war in May and June this year over New Delhi’s allegations that Islamabad was fueling a bloody revolt against its rule in Kashmir, a charge Islamabad denies. The tensions have since eased.
Blackwill also said India would be leasing more weapons-locating radar sets in addition to those New Delhi had already agreed to buy.
Meanwhile, a top aide to the prime minister said there was no immediate danger of war between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan. The South Asian rivals have begun withdrawing forces from their border after a 10-month standoff. India’s Defense Minister George Fernandes acknowledged yesterday that Pakistan had begun the process of pulling back some of its troops from front-line positions near its eastern border with India.
"However, the strategic reserves of the Pakistan Army continue to be located in the operational location. The pace of pulling back of the armed forces also indicates that Pakistan intends to undertake the process in a phased manner." India on Oct. 16 announced its plans to withdraw troops deployed on frontiers.
In Islamabad, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Mian Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri told Reuters yesterday that the new government wanted to move forward on India-Pakistan relations and suggested talks between leaders of the two nations. Brajesh Mishra, principal secretary to India’s Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, told the BBC’s HardTalk program a minor incident would not now trigger a war between the hostile neighbors.
"There is no danger today, of a little spark, creating a conflagration, but of course if something big were to happen obviously...," Mishra said.
Mishra said the two countries came very close to war after the Parliament raid in December and again in May when an army camp was attacked in Kashmir. India blamed both attacks on Pakistan.
"Emotions were very high after the attack on parliament. And again, the attack on women and children at the army camp, you know these situations are pretty grim," Mishra said on the program that will be aired today.
"We came pretty close in early January and then again after the massacre in the army camp in month of May," he said. Mishra said Vajpayee’s participation at a regional meeting slated to be held in Islamabad in January could be difficult "in the absence of any substance to the summit". Kasuri, the Pakistan foreign minister, said the summit would be a good opportunity for bilateral talks aimed at easing tension.
"You asked me whether something could be done quickly. Well we have invited the prime minister of India to come to SAARC. The ball is in their court now," he said. "Every sensible Pakistani and every sensible Indian wants to improve relations between the two countries and we have suffered as a result of our bad relations."
Speaking about Vajapyee’s grip over power, Mishra said the prime minister’s position is "very secure" within the coalition government and his Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
