NEW DELHI, 28 January — India kept up the pressure on archenemy Pakistan yesterday and announced the arrest of two people whom it called Pakistani spies in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. New Delhi said there has been no fundamental change in troubled Kashmir despite Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s promise to crack down on those fighting for the territory’s separation from India.
"It has been 15 days since Musharraf’s statement. We have not seen any evidence on the ground insofar as India is concerned and so far as Jammu-Kashmir is concerned," Home Minister L.K. Advani was quoted as saying by United News of India.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said terrorism directed against India would not be tolerated. "To make us a target of terrorism, and we do not give an appropriate response, that is not possible," Vajpayee said in a speech to students receiving basic military training.
Advani said Pakistan must extradite over 20 alleged terrorists wanted by New Delhi. "That can be seen as a litmus test for judging whether Gen. Musharraf’s statement is being implemented that terrorism will not be permitted in the name of the Kashmir cause," Advani told India’s Star News television.
Police in Andhra Pradesh said they have arrested two Pakistanis suspected of spying on military establishments in southern India, including the base of India’s missile development program. The suspects were identified as Ashiq Ali and Rayees Jan. The suspects, who arrived in India last year, were likely to appear in court and face charges today, police said.
Ashiq Ali was arrested in Nizamabad, a town 150 km (95 miles) north of Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh, on Saturday, and Jan was picked up in the state capital two days ago, said Ravi Shankar Iyengar, the deputy superintendent of police.
"We have recovered many sensitive documents, maps and photographs" from Ashiq Ali, including photographs of a local military warfare college, Iyengar said. Police said they caught Ali while he was making a phone call to his Pakistani contact. Police also recovered printouts of e-mails he had sent to Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir denied that an arms cache seized by security forces in Afghanistan belonged to it.
