M A I N   N E W S

No troop de-escalation: India

Munich, Germany, February 2
India today said its troops massed along the frontier with Pakistan would not stand down until there was clear evidence that “terrorism from across its borders” had slowed.

“We sincerely hope that we will achieve our purpose without use of unnecessary force,” National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra told an international defence conference in Munich.

“But it is important - not only for our national interest but also for the global campaign against terrorism - that we should remain firm in our resolve until it produces the desired objective.”

The countries have ramped up troop levels along their border since the December 13 attack on India’s Parliament.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar, who has said he wants a meeting with Mr Mishra on the sidelines of the German meeting, renewed Islamabad’s openness for talks on Kashmir.

“The issue can and should be settled by peaceful means,” he told the conference. “Pakistan remains ready to pick up the threads and move forward to purposeful negotiations.”

New Delhi accuses Islamabad of sponsoring terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir. While Islamabad says it provides only moral and diplomatic support for a self-determination struggle in the province.

“Of course no one condones terrorism. The problem of definition arises when some countries with skeletons in their closets exploit the label of terrorism to discredit legitimate movements for self-determination,” Mr Sattar said.

Mishra reiterated India’s call for action: “India would like to see concrete evidence of a diminution of terrorism from across its borders before it acts on military de-escalation.”

There was no word today on whether the two would indeed meet, but Mr Sattar said international intervention was helping: “Efforts of common friends to defuse the crisis have led to a certain political de-escalation.”

Yet in a thinly veiled expression of Indian frustration with Washington’s focus on Al-Qaeda and Afghanistan’s Taliban, Mr Mishra said: “We cannot condone terrorism somewhere while condemning it elsewhere because this lenience will boomerang on all of us”.

Mr Mishra, who is also Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, made links between the Al-Qaeda network, which the USA blames for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, and terrorism against Indian interests.

He also suggested that Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters who were trapped in Kunduz during the US military campaign in Afghanistan may have fled to Kashmir or Pakistan, although he did not specify those destinations by name.

“These are questions of long-term relevance to the international campaign against terrorism,” he said. “Anyone who looks at a map of the region would understand why, for India, this is a matter of immediate security concern.”

Meanwhile, Mr Sattar today termed as “unwise and unwarranted” the test fire of surface-to-air missile ‘Trishul’ by India this week and said the present situation between the two countries called for “restraint and responsibility.”

“At a time when a spark can ignite a conflagration, the situation calls for exercise of restraint and responsibility,” Mr Sattar told an international security conference here.

“India’s decision to test-fire two missiles was both unwise and unwarranted. It deserved international criticism and censure,” Mr Sattar said, referring to the testfire of ‘Trishul’ on Wednesday and short-range ‘Agni’ missile last week. Reuters, AFP