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Pakistan Rounds Up Militants In Bid To Avert War
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| Hafiz Saeed arrested Monday |
ISLAMABAD, Dec. 31 (IslamOnline & News
Agencies) - In a bid to defuse a brewing regional crisis, Pakistan announced
Monday the arrest of dozens of militants allegedly linked with the attack on
India's parliament.
India welcomed the crackdown on Pakistan-based
Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, which it accused – without solid
evidence -- of carrying out the December 13 parliament raid that has sent
military tensions between the two nuclear rivals soaring.
"If this information is correct, this is certainly a step forward in the
right direction," Indian Foreign Minister, Jaswant Singh, said Monday, as
the two nations remained in battle-ready positions on their borders.
After a weekend where menacing war rhetoric
reached a crescendo, Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, said Sunday the
nation wanted to avoid a conflict, but stood ready to fight if attacked by
India.
"Pakistan stands for peace, Pakistan wants peace, Pakistan wants to reduce
tension," he said.
"However,” added Musharraf, “Pakistan has taken all counter measures.
If any war is thrust on Pakistan, the Pakistan armed forces and the 140 million
people of Pakistan are fully prepared to face all consequences with all their
might."
Pakistani government spokesman, Anwar Mahmood, said Monday Lashkar leader, Hafiz
Mohammed Saeed, "has been arrested for violating laws banning provocative
speeches designed to incite people to violate law and order," reported
Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Also, in the southern port city of Karachi, Pakistani police said they had
arrested more than two dozen militants from Lashkar and Jaish and raided their
offices "as a preventative security measure."
Police sources in Karachi hinted more raids would soon be launched against the
two groups as well as other organizations.
"We have been given signals for a crackdown on all the extremist groups and
more arrests are likely in the next 24 hours," a senior intelligence
official said on condition of anonymity, AFP reported.
Meanwhile, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aziz Ahmed Khan, said
Pakistan would welcome talks with India to resolve their dangerous dispute.
"The ball is in India's court," he said. "We certainly would
welcome the message as far as resolution is concerned through diplomatic means
... We will certainly respond to that."
In another development, Pakistani military
spokesman, Major General Rashid Qureshi, has made it clear on Monday that there
is no training camp of Kashmiris in Pakistan.
In an interview with Radio Tehran, Qureshi was
asked as to what would be Pakistan's reaction if India bombs or raids the
training camps of Kashmiris and other sensitive areas in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
"This is nothing more than Indian
propaganda that is continuing since long," Qureshi replied.
He said that India was unable to understand
that the freedom struggle initiated by the civilian Kashmiris could not be
crushed. Moreover, he made it clear that it would be very harmful for India if
it committed the mistake of crossing the ground or air boundaries of Pakistan or
attacking Azad Kashmir or Pakistan.
Asked to comment on alleged demands made by
India for handing over of certain Pakistanis and reports that a list of such
individuals had also been made, he said that none of these reports were true.
There was neither any list nor demand, he added.
General Qureshi pointed out that Pakistan had
clearly said that if the Indian government or anyone else had evidence that any
Pakistan-based individual or organization was involved in terrorist activities
in India, Pakistan would take action against them.
India had not provided any proof, he added, so
the report regarding provision of a list was baseless.
In the wake of another Indian heavy attack at
the Line of Control (LoC) dividing Kashmir, Indian and Pakistani troops
exchanged heavy mortar fire over their border in southern Kashmir on Monday in
which two Indian soldiers were killed and five wounded, a senior Indian army
official said, Pakistan News Agency (PNA) reported.
A Pakistani military spokesman, Brigadier P.C.
Das, said Monday the heaviest shelling was in the Pallanwalla sector, 80
kilometers (50 miles) west of the Kashmiri winter capital Jammu, and said
Pakistan responded to the heavy Indian attack.
Earlier, Musharraf told world leaders that
"India is an aggressor, and it's natural that Pakistan is reacting to its
aggression at LoC."
Pakistan is also assisting the United States in
its military campaign in Asia, which the U.S. terms a “war on terrorism”.
Pakistani military troops are also keeping an eye on its border with
Afghanistan.
Some 4,000 Pakistani troops, backed by helicopter
gun ships, had been deployed on the border with Afghanistan to prevent any Al-Qaeda
infiltration. So far, the Pakistani army has captured more than 400 Al-Qaeda
activists and has handed them over to U.S. Marines.
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