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Foreign Nationals Urged to Leave India Amid Fears of War
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Prospects of Pak-India war are on the increase |
LONDON,
May 31 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Britain Friday urged its
nationals in India to consider leaving the country because of
"the increased risk of conflict" with its nuclear rival
Pakistan over disputed Kashmir.
British
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, just returned from a three-day peace
mission to South Asia, said families of British diplomats and
non-essential staff were also offered the chance to return home,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
Foreign Office said there were currently no plans to evacuate the
estimated 20,000 British nationals from India.
However,
BBC’s news service reported Friday that thousands of foreign
nationals were advised to leave India as its confrontation with
Pakistan over Kashmir may lead to war.
Citizens
and some diplomats from the U.S., Britain, New Zealand and Australia
have been advised to return home.
Meanwhile,
as international efforts to resolve the crisis continued, Pakistan
welcomed the visit next week of U.S. Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld.
Rumsfeld
is expected to emphasize to both India and Pakistan the terrible cost
of any nuclear conflict for the two countries and the entire region.
Pakistani
Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan told the AFP news agency:
"We will expect him [Rumsfeld] to tell India to stop its
belligerence and talk peace."
But
exchanges of mortar and artillery fire were continuing across the Line
of Control in the disputed region. Indian security officials said one
of their soldiers had been killed.
Earlier
Friday, the U.S. State Department authorized the voluntary departure
of non-essential diplomats and all dependents from its missions in
India, saying it could not rule out worsening the crisis with
Pakistan.
It
was a lower level of alert than the "ordered departure"
issued for Pakistan in March.
The
U.S. is also urging American citizens currently in India to leave.
Last
week, Britain said it was pulling more than 150 diplomatic staff and
dependents out of Pakistan, shut its chancelleries and advised its
citizens there to leave following a series of security threats.
Straw recalled that during his visit Wednesday to New Delhi, he said
that while the situation between India and Pakistan was dangerous,
"war was not inevitable."
"That remains my view and we are all working as hard as we can to
secure a peaceful resolution of this long-standing conflict," he
added in Friday's statement.
"However,
I do have a clear duty of care in respect both of UK citizens, and of
UK staff in diplomatic posts abroad."
As a precaution, therefore, Britain was advising against all travel to
India and urging Britons already there to consider leaving "in
view of the heightened tension and increased risk of conflict with
Pakistan."
British missions in India will also offer only a reduced visa service.
The travel advice covers the whole of India, the Foreign Office said.
For
its part, Australia said it was withdrawing non-essential diplomatic
staff from Delhi and Islamabad, while New Zealand said it was pulling
out all relatives of its diplomatic staff in the Indian capital,
according to BBC.
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