NEW
DELHI, June 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - While U.S. Deputy
Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Thursday, June 6 that
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had assured him he was determined
to avoid a war with India over the simmering Kashmir crisis, India's
military was reported to be seeking final authorization to invade the
Pakistani side of divided Kashmir in the middle of this month.
“President
Musharraf made it very clear that he is searching for peace and he
would not be the one to initiate war,” Armitage said, quoted by
Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“I'm
very heartened to hear of President Musharraf's desire to have war
avoidance,” he went on. “I think we need to do our best, the
international community, to bring down the temperature.
But
Armitage admitted that the situation remained "quite complicated
and quite volatile".
Armitage
arrived in Islamabad Thursday for meetings with Musharraf and Foreign
Minister Abdul Sattar, in the first volley of a major new U.S.
diplomatic offensive to avert conflict between the nuclear-capable
rivals.
The veteran foreign policy troubleshooter is to be followed to the
region by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who will also
try to cool the row which has erupted over the issue of alleged
cross-border militancy in disputed Kashmir.
U.S. President George W. Bush kicked off the initiative Wednesday,
June 5 with phone calls to Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal
Behari Vajpayee in which he urged both leaders to “choose the path
of diplomacy”.
To
Vajpayee, Bush stressed “the need for India to respond with
de-escalatory steps,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said,
after the United States and Britain upgraded travel warnings and
strongly urged their citizens to leave both countries.
And
to Musharraf Bush said "that the United States expects Pakistan
to live up to the commitment Pakistan has made to end all support for
terrorism," Fleischer added.
Armitage
confirmed that Musharraf “made it clear that nothing is happening
across the Line of Control,” AFP reported.
Armitage
also said he was buoyed by Musharraf's comments that Pakistan was
still committed to the U.S.-led war on terrorism, particularly the
crackdown on Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
“He
expressed his absolute determination to continue to prosecute the war
on Al-Qaeda and he also articulated his aspirations for the people of
Pakistan -- he was really pointing to the future,” Armitage said,
quoted by AFP.
Meanwhile,
India's military is seeking final authorization to invade the
Pakistani side of divided Kashmir in the middle of this month, the
British daily newspaper, The Telegraph, reported
Thursday, June 6.
The
Telegraph quoted military sources as saying that the
planned war would be similar to the U.S. war on Afghanistan in which
air strikes would be followed by ground assaults by special forces
transported by helicopter.
Smart
bombs and other advanced ordnance are reported to have been loaded on
to French-made Mirage 2000H and Russian-built MiG-27 aircraft at bases
in northern and western India, the Telegraph said.
Most
senior Indian officers expect that the conflict would last about a
week before pressure from the U.S. and other powers forced a
ceasefire.
One
Indian officer said he believed there was only the “slimmest
chance” of nuclear weapons being used. “We will call Pakistan's
nuclear bluff,” he said. It [the nuclear factor] cannot deter us any
more.”
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Indian tanks sit on train carriages in the northern city of Ludhiana waiting to be dispatched to Kashmir state. |
The
Indians want to move before the arrival of heavy monsoon rains at the
beginning of July make military operations impossible, said the Telegraph.
The
tension was underlined by the British Foreign Office's second warning
to Britons to leave the region.
Last
week, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said they should
“consider” leaving.
On
Wednesday, June 5, Straw said British nationals “should” do so
amid evidence that the first advice had been widely ignored. Officials
say there are some 20,000 Britons in India, but unofficial estimates
are much higher.
As
the U.S. issued equally robust advice to its 60,000 citizens, a senior
Indian planning officer said that Washington and London knew that
action was imminent.
“The
U.S.-led move out of Delhi indicates that Washington has been informed
of India's intentions of hitting Pakistan and is taking them
seriously,” the Telegraph quoted the officer as
saying.
Japan's
Foreign Minister, Yoriko Kawaguchi, cancelled a trip to the region
hours after speaking to Straw. Tokyo refused to give a reason, saying
only that “there were various considerations”.
India's
plan of attack is to seize and hold tracts of Pakistani Kashmir,
providing the government with a much-needed military triumph and the
military with improved defensive positions.
Officers
indicated that the air force was poised to execute a strategy
developed over several years to strike at 50 to 75 targets in Kashmir.
The
Indians would then send troops across the high mountain passes in
helicopters.
Planners
expect major casualties as the helicopters cross four lines of
Pakistani air defenses equipped with advanced radar.
Targets
will include a bridge across the Karakoram highway connecting China to
the region and at least three others linking Pakistani Kashmir to the
rest of the country.
Their
destruction would prevent China from replenishing its ally Pakistan's
weaponry. It would also cut off supply routes from Pakistan to
front-line units.
India's
broad strategy is to execute air strikes that will induce Pakistan
into extending the conflict by opening a wider front.
The
two countries have massed more than a million men on their border
since the crisis began with an attack on the Indian parliament in
December, which India has blamed - without evidence to date - on
Pakistan.
India's
military believes that it now has political backing for war. An
officer said the beleaguered ruling coalition was “fully aware”
that backing down at this juncture would mean political suicide.
By
attacking soon, an Indian officer said, India planned to set back
Pakistan's military capability by at least 30 years, pushing it into
the military “dark ages”, the Telegraph reported
