INDIA/PAKISTAN: India and Pakistan yesterday exchanged fire in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir they both claim, as the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, headed for the region leading an international effort to defuse military tension between the nuclear rivals. Rahul Bedi reports from Kathmandu, where a summit of South Asian leaders begins today.
Islamic guerrillas also ambushed an army patrol killing two soldiers and wounding seven in Indian-administered Kashmir, in the latest incident in the war-torn region that is the focus of a tense military standoff between the neighbours.
Ahead of his South Asia trip, Mr Blair discussed with President Bush over the telephone ways to reduce tension between India and Pakistan. "The call was part of our ongoing discussions about ways for the two nations to work together to help bring down tensions in the area," a Bush spokesman, Mr Scott McClellan, said. Mr Bush and Mr Blair, he added, were "pleased to learn" that Indian and Pakistani leaders were attending the South Asian Association Regional Co-operation (SAARC) summit that begins in Nepal's capital Kathmandu today.
This "could be an opportunity for them" to ease their standoff, Mr McClellan added. SAARC also includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, the Maldives and Sri Lanka.
But the Indian Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bherai Vajpayee, categorically ruled out talks with Gen Pervez Musharraf at SAARC unless Pakistan stopped sponsoring cross-border terrorism in Kashmir.
"There is no question of talks till Pakistan cracks down on terrorism," Mr Vajpayee said before leaving for the summit where the focus will be on terrorism and the India-Pakistan tension. "It seems that Pakistan does not want to leave terrorism," he declared.
China, which controls a slice of Kashmir, has also called on both countries to de-escalate tension. "If the situation gets out of control and results in large scale armed conflict, not only would India and Pakistan both suffer, it would also influence the peace process in Afghanistan, and endanger the stability and development of South Asia and even all of Asia," China's Xinhua News Agency quoted its Foreign Minister, Mr Tang Jiaxuan Tang, as telling the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, over the telephone.
Mr Tang was speaking ahead of a visit to China by the Pakistani president who has been applauded by the US for cracking down on militant groups India blames for last month's suicide attack on its parliament and for the 12-year long civil war raging in Kashmir.
Gen Musharraf, who arrives today in Kathmandu from Beijing in a Chinese airliner, told Pakistan state television before leaving Islamabad that he hoped the Nepal summit would help promote peace. "I hope that with the help of this meeting there should be a discussion about the peace and tranquility of this region," he said.
Gen Musharraf is coming via China having turned down India's offer to over-fly its territory after the two sides snapped air, road and rail links following the attack on the Indian parliament in which 14 people, including five terrorists, died. India withdrew its ambassador after the December 13th assault, both countries halved their embassies and activated their armies and nuclear-capable missiles on the frontier. "We have not been formally approached for talks, " the Indian Foreign Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, said in Kathmandu, ruling out the possibility of any dialogue with his counterpart, Mr Adbul Sattar.
Mr Singh said that if Pakistan is interested in de-escalating tension it should show, by deeds and not words that it is serious in apprehending terrorists. Mr Singh said India had presented Islamabad proof of bombings, hijackings and attacks on civilians by Pakistan-backed terrorist groups for over eight years, but it had ignored them and constantly resorted "to subterfuge ".
Pakistan has denied any involvement in Kashmir's civil war that has claimed over 35,000 lives. It claims to provide the Kashmiri separatist struggle only "moral and diplomatic" support.
Meanwhile, India's Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, said India did not rule out exercising the military option against Pakistan if diplomacy failed to persuade it to take action against Kashmiri terrorist groups. "If they (diplomatic talks) fail then we are left with the option that the United States exercised in dealing with terrorism," Mr Fernandes told the New York Times.
He also claimed that India would not be deterred by Pakistan's nuclear arsenal from launching a military strike against it. "I can't believe they would ever use it for the simple reason that they would be inviting a second strike," he said. That could be devastating, given Pakistan's size, he added. After their 1998 tit-for-tat nuclear tests Pakistan retained its first use option of mass destruction while India opted for a retaliatory strike.
Indian defence officials said the army that was on "high alert" along the Pakistani border would remain deployed for at least three months." We want to give Islamabad the opportunity to show it is taking concrete measures to clamp down on India-centric terrorist groups," a senior army officer said. But if it falters, "then we are poised to strike", he added.