India will do its utmost to avert war with Pakistan, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said yesterday, but he asked Indians to be prepared for the possibility that peace efforts might fail.
Meanwhile, 18 Indian soldiers were killed while laying mines to deter Pakistani tanks, officials said, as the border standoff continued.
India has said it won't talk peace until Pakistan stops what New Delhi calls a "proxy war" -- the backing of Islamic guerrillas fighting Indian security forces in Kashmir. Vajpayee stressed that "no means shall be spared" in putting a stop to what he called "Pakistan-sponsored terrorism."
"I have said before and I would like to say it again: we do not want war, but a war in the form of cross-border terrorism has already been thrust on India," Vajpayee told senior officials of his Bharatiya Janata Party, according to Press Trust of India. "We shall do our utmost to avoid war with Pakistan."
Relations between the two South Asian nuclear rivals have worsened since a suicide attack on India's Parliament Dec. 13 that New Delhi blames on Pakistan's spy agency and two Islamic militant groups operating from Pakistani territory. Islamabad denies the charge.
India calls Pakistan the "epicenter" of terrorism in the region. Islamic guerrillas, from a dozen-odd militant groups in Pakistan, have sneaked across the Kashmir frontier for 12 years to launch attacks on Indian army targets and public places in Jammu & Kashmir. Thousands of civilians have been killed.
Thousands of poor villagers were fleeing their homes or were asked to evacuate in border areas, where shells and bullets have punched holes in homes and killed several civilians and their cattle. More than 20,000 villagers have fled their homes in the Jammu region alone, civil administration officials said.
In the desert state of Raja-sthan, 18 soldiers were killed and 12 others wounded Friday when land mines they were laying along the border exploded, army officials in the state said yesterday. Two soldiers and a civilian died in similar blasts on Tuesday in the Bhuttowalla area, the officials said on condition of anonymity.
In the northern city of Agra, authorities began preparations to camouflage the Taj Mahal if Pakistani warplanes launch an attack. Local tailors were stitching more than 400m of khaki, black and green cloth, to be strung across the Taj Mahal, the 17th-century marble mausoleum, officials said.
Officials said they would try to hide its four minarets and dome, if a full-scale conflict between the two countries were to break out. A key Indian air force base is located in Agra.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-Wong tomorrow, which it said would possibly make landfall near central Taiwan. As of 2am yesterday, Fung-Wong was about 1,760km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving west-northwest at 26kph. It is forecast to reach Luzon in the northern Philippines by tomorrow, the CWA said. After entering the South China Sea, Typhoon Fung-Wong is likely to turn northward toward Taiwan, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said, adding that it would likely make landfall near central Taiwan. The CWA expects to issue a land
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it is expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong this afternoon and a land warning tomorrow. As of 1pm, the storm was about 1,070km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, and was moving west-northwest at 28 to 32kph, according to CWA data. The storm had a radius of 250km, with maximum sustained winds of 173kph and gusts reaching 209kph, the CWA added. The storm is forecast to pass near Luzon in the Philippines before entering the South China Sea and potentially turning northward toward Taiwan, the CWA said. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said
PREPARATION: Ferry lines and flights were canceled ahead of only the second storm to hit the nation in November, while many areas canceled classes and work Authorities yesterday evacuated more than 3,000 people ahead of approaching Tropical Storm Fung-wong, which is expected to make landfall between Kaohsiung and Pingtung County this evening. Fung-wong was yesterday morning downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm as it approached the nation’s southwest coast, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, as it issued a land alert for the storm. The alert applies to residents in Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung and Taitung counties, and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春). As of press time last night, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Yilan, Miaoli, Changhua, Yunlin, Pingtung and Penghu counties, as well as Chiayi city and county had
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