NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD, 26 December — India’s war rhetoric reached a crescendo yesterday with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee saying, "We do not want war but it is being thrust on us. We will have to face it."
The president of archrival Pakistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, responded by saying his army was fully prepared to face all challenges. "We are confronted with external and internal challenges. But our forces are prepared to face all challenges," he told a crowd in the southern port city of Karachi at the mausoleum of Muhammad Ali Jinnah to mark the 125th anniversary of the birth of Pakistan’s founding father.
Three Indians were killed in cross-border firing in disputed Kashmir as India bolstered its frontier defenses with jets and armor while warships prowled the country’s maritime borders, officials said in New Delhi. They said two soldiers and a woman died when Pakistani troops targeted Indian military posts in Indian Kashmir’s Poonch sector. They also reported sporadic cross-border exchanges of fire. Star TV quoting Indian commanders in Kashmir said a Pakistani bunker was destroyed in retaliation.
Indian media reported a steady movement of "air assets" to the border states of Kashmir, Punjab and Rajasthan. The Statesman said India was moving tanks and artillery to its borders and had put its air force on the second highest level of alert.
It also said India was redeploying its corvettes and frigates from bases in the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea off Bombay to counter any maritime offensive on the country’s west, which houses a key nuclear facility.
To facilitate smooth transportation of troops and weaponry to air bases in Rajasthan, railroad authorities said, around a dozen passenger train services to these towns have been suspended.
Indian Defense Ministry officials confirmed the military movements. "We are rescheduling formations and air force squadrons as part of precautionary measures being adopted in view of the amassing of troops on the other side," an official said.
He accused Pakistan of failing to pull back some combat units from their border posts in line with a bilateral arrangement that pledges the removal of troops after regular exercises at the frontier.
The Indian Army began laying mines along the border with Pakistan, eyewitness said. Villagers in Punjab told a team of reporters that they had been advised to stay away from the area around the fenced frontier in the Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts where land mines had been laid. Reports from the border districts of Bikaner and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan said that one person had been injured and two camels and 30 goats and sheep killed when they strayed into the minefields along the frontier.
The Press Trust of India said more than 3,000 civilians have fled their homes in frontier districts of Kashmir since the start of the recent border clashes.
Addressing a rally organized by the youth wing of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party at his New Delhi house on his birthday, Vajpayee said: "India is moving ahead step by step" against Pakistan to counter terrorism. "We have stated that this time the fight should be the last on the issue of terrorism," he said.
Musharraf’s tone was sober. "We will have to step very cautiously ... as we are a responsible state of 140 million people with nuclear capabilities."
Pakistan arrested Maulana Masood Azhar, head of the Jaish-e-Muhammad group. "He has been arrested for violating a ban on making provocative speeches and inciting people to violate law and order," said a senior government official in Islamabad. The official said Azhar, who was detained over the weekend, had not been formally charged. "There are certain rules and Azhar has violated them."
Jaish-e-Muhammad is one of the two organizations accused by India of carrying out the Dec. 13 attack on the parliament building in New Delhi in which 14 people, including the five gunmen, were killed. The other is Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Official sources said Azhar’s arrest was linked to speeches he had made against Pakistan’s support for the US-led coalition in Afghanistan and not as a result of Indian pressure. Jaish-e-Muhammad is fighting to drive Indian forces from the Muslim-majority Himalayan state of Kashmir.
The organization was formed last year by Azhar who was released from jail in India as part of a deal to end an Indian airline hijacking in December 1999. It was put on a US terrorist watch list in October. The group has repeatedly denied any involvement in terrorism.
Pakistan froze the bank accounts of Lashkar-e-Taiba on Monday but said the decision was taken in view of a US decision to do likewise.
India’s recalled high commissioner (ambassador) to Pakistan said Pakistan did not realize the seriousness of the tense relations between the neighbors and urged it to take stronger action against "terrorist groups." Vijay Nambiar said measures taken by Pakistan were not enough to cripple the operations of "terrorist" groups.
