PAKISTAN/INDIA: Colin Powell will be asked, during today's visit to Pakistan, to help defuse the stand-off with India, reports Rahul Bedi, from New Delhi
Pakistan will seek US mediation to ease the military stand-off with its nuclear neighbour, India, when the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, visits Islamabad today.
"Pakistan hopes the US will use its influence with India to de-escalate tension along the border and bring Delhi to the negotiating table to resolve all outstanding issues including the Kashmir dispute," a foreign ministry official said in Islamabad.
After visiting Pakistan, Mr Powell is due to visit Afghanistan and India.
India, however, ruled out any role for the US as a mediator for talks between Delhi and Islamabad, especially on Kashmir. India considers Kashmir - over which the neighbours have, since independence, fought two of their three wars and an 11-week long border conflict in 1999 - a bilateral dispute with no room for "outside" involvement.
Delhi has also ruled out pulling back its troops from the 2,070-mile frontier with Pakistan despite President Pervez Musharraf's weekend address in which he outlawed five Muslim militant organisations, including two accused by India of launching last month's attack on parliament in Delhi. The attack triggered a massive troop build-up by the two sides, reciprocal diplomatic sanctions and the breaking of rail, road and air links.
Pakistan has arrested nearly 2,000 religious extremists and closed down over 500 of their offices across the country. Yesterday Pakistan's central bank said it had frozen the accounts of three of the five Islamic militant organisations banned at the weekend.
The three groups are Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan from the majority Islamic Sunni sect and its Shi'ite rival Tehrik-e-Jafria Pakistan, plus the pro-Taliban Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi.
"We have asked the chief executive of all banks and non-bank financial institutions to immediately freeze the accounts of these three groups as they have been declared proscribed organisations by the federal government under the Anti-Terrorist Act," the central bank spokesman said.
But the Indian Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, on Monday said Delhi would not affect a troop pull-back as it was still too early to determine whether Gen Musharraf was sincere in matching his words with action.
According to the Washington Times, Pakistan is building missile launching sites close to the border for its nuclear-capable M-11 Chinese missiles that can strike deep inside Indian territory. India has also deployed its short-range Prithvi missiles that can carry a nuclear warhead. Both sides have mined large border stretches as a deterrent to enemy forces.
Before leaving Washington, Mr Powell said Gen Musharraf had done more than just speak. "He is taking action, he has banned terrorist organisations, he is arresting people," Mr Powell told CNN.
Mr Powell said the key aim of his south Asian trip is to defuse all chances of a sudden incident triggering an India-Pakistan war, which the West fears might escalate into a nuclear exchange.
"There are a million troops facing each other and that always has to be seen as a dangerous situation," Mr Powell said. "We do not want, and cannot have, a war in south Asia at this time," he added, indicating that US interests remain focused on combating terrorism in Afghanistan and on hunting down Osama bin Laden.