India's prime minister told troops on the front line with Pakistan yesterday that the time had come for a decisive fight.
Although Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee did not spell out the nature of this fight, he said his visit to soldiers in northern Kashmir, at a time of high tension between the nuclear-capable foes, should be seen as a signal.
PHOTO: AP
"Whether our neighbor understands this signal or not, whether the world takes account of it or not, history will be witness to this. We shall write a new chapter of victory," he told soldiers in Kupwara, northern Kashmir.
"Be prepared for sacrifices. But our aim should be victory. Because it's now time for a decisive fight," he said in a speech which was broadcast live nationwide on state television.
The rival neighbors have massed up to a million troops, backed by fighter jets, missiles and tanks, on their border since India blamed Pakistan-based Kashmiri militants for a raid on India's national parliament last December.
Tensions rose further last week when suspected Muslim rebels battling Indian rule in Kashmir raided an army camp, killing more than 30 people, many of them the wives and children of soldiers on the front line.
And now India is readying its army for war in an effort to pile pressure on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and force him to crack down harder on Islamic militants.
Pakistan said yesterday it would not allow the part of disputed Kashmir it controls to be used for terrorist activity.
But a government statement, after a joint meeting of Musharraf's Cabinet and the policy-making National Security Council (NSC), said Pakistan would continue its "moral, political and diplomatic support" to what it called the Kashmiri struggle for self-determination.
India's navy said yesterday it was moving five warships from the eastern fleet to reinforce its western fleet in the Arabian Sea south of Pakistan.
The navy has a total of 140 ships. The spokesman said the ships -- a destroyer, a frigate and three missile corvettes -- would reach the Arabian Sea within a week.
Since Friday the two armies have also exchanged heavy mortar and machine-gun fire across the border, forcing hundreds of villagers to flee to safety.
Officials have reported 10 deaths in the past two days, including a girl, who Pakistani police said was killed by Indian gunners yesterday. Each side blames the other for starting the firing.
Vajpayee's visit to Kashmir was overshadowed by the killing on Tuesday's of separatist leader Abdul Gani Lone in Srinagar, summer capital of Indian Kashmir.
Thousands of mourners, shouting "Freedom for Kashmir," took part yesterday in an emotional funeral procession for Lone, a moderate whom India had hoped to convince to take part in state elections planned for later this year.
The elections are key to India's efforts to try to bring peace to the region, the cause of two of the three wars between India and Pakistan since partition and independence in 1947.
Lone's rose-strewn body was carried through a main thoroughfare of Srinagar in an open truck trailed by thousands of men on foot and hundreds of vehicles.
The men punched the air with their fists and shouted separatist slogans as they followed Lone's body.
Unidentified gunmen shot Lone dead at a public meeting, adding to a spiral of violence and raising international fears that the two countries could be tipping towards war.
Some Indian leaders blamed Pakistan for Lone's death while Pakistan accused India's "occupying forces" in Kashmir.
The rising tensions are prompting a string of visits by high-level officials to try to find a way out.
The EU's External Affairs Commissioner, Chris Patten, said during a visit to Islamabad yesterday that the two countries should work together to stop "terrorism".
"One of the things to which I will be drawing attention to repeatedly is the Security Council Resolution 1373 which Pakistan has signed and every European Union country has signed," he told a news conference.
Resolution 1373, adopted last year after the Sept. 11 attacks on the US, calls on countries to work together to stamp out terrorist acts.
"I will be drawing attention to a relationship between that Security Council resolution and the current situation," said Patten, who was due to visit New Delhi later this week.
He would be followed to the region next week by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, and later by US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
Straw urged the international community on Tuesday to act to defuse the crisis.
"The possibility of war between India and Pakistan is real and very disturbing," Straw said in London. "This is a crisis the world cannot ignore."
Analysts expect India to give some time to the international community to try to end the deadlock.
From India's point of view this primarily means getting the US to force Musharraf to crack down on militants.
But analysts say diplomats could also try to convince India that Musharraf's room for manoeuvre may be limited, given the militants may be out of his control.
And given the high state of military preparedness, the situation could spin out of control if there is another major militant attack on India.
"The irony is that the timing of the conflict may be decided neither by New Delhi nor Pakistan but by some terrorist," said Indian defense analyst Brahma Chellaney.
"Not all Pakistani terrorists are in the control of Musharraf and his Cabinet. The trigger of an open confrontation might be provided by elements not within control of Musharraf," he said.
Since October 1947, when the then Hindu ruler of Kashmir decided to join mainly Hindu India rather than Islamic Pakistan, the region has fuelled rivalry between the two countries.
India, which holds 45 percent of Kashmir, considers it an integral part of its territory. Pakistan, which controls a third, wants a plebiscite to determine the wishes of the Kashmiri people. China holds the remainder of Kashmir.
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