M A I N   N E W S

Will there be thaw in Indo-Pak ties?
Tribune News Service

Kathmandu, January 3
Despite the prevailing “chill” in Indo-Pak relations, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is under tremendous pressure to somehow resume the bilateral dialogue with India so as to assure his constituents back home that there is no change in Islamabad’s Kashmir policy.

Saving the perfunctory and brief handshake between External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Abdul Sattar at the inaugural session of the SAARC Council of Ministers here yesterday, “the chill set in” on Indo-Pak ties which had plummeted after the December 13 audacious terrorist attack on the Parliament House in New Delhi.

General Musharraf is hoping against hope that somehow Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee will set the ball rolling for restarting the dialogue. It is apparent the Pakistani President wants “Kashmir” to hit the spotlight again.

This is virtually ruled out. There is an element of despondency in the Pakistani camp as Islamabad has got the message loud and clear that New Delhi is not going to budge an inch till Pakistan reigns in terrorists and stops cross-border terrorism.

India has been extremely patient and shown tremendous restraint for too long. New Delhi firmly believes that Pakistan has to act in eliminating the terrorist outfits on its soil.

It is apparent that the self-appointed President of Pakistan finds himself enmeshed in having taken an about turn in Afghanistan with the repressive Taliban regime hounded out of power in the US-led war against international terrorism. Having already succumbed to American pressure in joining the international coalition against Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden and the Al-Qaida terrorist network for direly needed economic aid, General Musharraf does not want such an impression to gain ground that he has made a volte face on Pakistan’s Kashmir policy by stopping cross-border terrorism.

Even though General Musharraf has the backing of the powerful military establishment in Pakistan, he is finding it extremely difficult to reign in the jehadi elements and terrorist outfits owing allegiance to various schools of thought.

General Musharraf is at a loss on how to break the ice with India. Yet, the unending refrain in the Pakistani camp is that “General Musharraf has to take back something from India and in the absence of that, Islamabad can do precious little in tackling cross-border terrorism.”

At the same time, the entire media’s focus here is on seeing if there is a thaw in Indo-Pakistan relations. Clearly, all attention is riveted on whether there is a Vajpayee-Musharraf meeting on the sidelines of the SAARC summit. For all practical purposes, a Vajpayee-Musharraf one-on-one in Kathmandu remains a closed chapter.

Pak may deploy ‘strike corps’ on LoC

Indian BSF men conduct a patrol as the sun sets at the forward post in Baingalar near the Samba sector, 50 km west of Jammu, on Thursday. — Reuters photo

Jammu, January 3
The Pakistan army is planning to deploy troops from 11 and 12 Corps, currently stationed on its western borders with Afghanistan, across the Line of Control in Poonch and Rajouri districts of Jammu and Kashmir.

Highly-placed security sources said here this afternoon that the 11 Corps was currently entrusted with the task of detecting the Al-Qaida activists who had fled Afghanistan in the wake of relentless American airstrikes on Afghanistan.

The 12 corps also stationed on the western borders of Pakistan is a ‘strike corps’ and is specialised in swift ground operations during war. The Corps is adroit in using heavy artillery guns and camouflage operations and is highly mobile. It can move its personnel within hours after being told to do so.

The sources pointed out that troops from 12 Corps had already been deployed along the international border in Samba and Hiranagar sectors along with the Pakistan Rangers. “Intelligence reports suggest that troops from 12 Corps have been deployed across the IB and they are dressed in the uniform of the Rangers. In recent firings from Pakistani border outposts (BoPs), we have seen them indulging in heavy firing using “rapid-firing technique”, the sources averred.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan army has fitted the ANZA I and ANZA II short-range missiles a few km away from the LoC. The exact locations of the missiles were yet to be known, the sources said, adding that recent reports suggested that HATF I missiles were also deployed somewhere across the Poonch sector.

The Chinese-made Silkworm missiles popularly known as M-11 missiles were also being reportedly ferried near military command centres near the LoC, the sources informed. They were reported to be already stationed near Sargodha Air Base, more than 15 km from the LoC. The missile is currently under mass production somewhere near Kahuta.

Messages of Pakistani troops deployed in the frontline positions intercepted recently indicate that Special Services Group commandos alongwith the Corps of Engineers of the neighbouring nation’s army were actively involved in installing these missiles. UNI