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“The pullback will commence shortly,” a foreign office statement said
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By
Asif Farooqi, IOL Pakistan Correspondent
ISLAMABAD,
October 18 (IslamOnline) – Responding promptly to the Indian
decision of troop’s withdrawal, Pakistan on Thursday, October 17,
announced withdrawing its forces along its borders with India to
peacetime locations.
The
Pakistani decision followed India’s announcement Tuesday night,
October 15, that it was retrieving most of its forces along the
Pakistani border, excluding the troubled region of Kashmir.
“The
pull back will commence shortly,” a foreign office statement said.
According to the statement, the decision was taken at a high level
meeting chaired by President General Pervez Musharraf here Wednesday,
October 16.
Welcoming
the Indian decision to withdraw its extra forces from the
international border, the statement said Pakistan had consistently
called for de-escalation, withdrawal by India of its forces to peace
time locations and resumption of dialogue.
Pakistan
and India gathered almost one million troops along their common
borders since December last year when tensions between the two
countries rose to highest levels following a deadly attack on the
Indian parliament which India blamed on Pakistan-backed militants.
Pakistan
also welcomed the announcement that the Indian Prime Minister would
travel to Pakistan to participate in a regional summit meeting in
January next year.
Indian
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's office announced Wednesday his
decision to travel to Islamabad in January for the South Asian
Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit.
"We
welcome this decision," said Foreign Office spokesman Aziz Ahmed
Khan.
The
Indian government had so far refused to attend this annual meeting the
venue for which was selected to be Islamabad. India had been pushing
for a change in the venue for the last many months with a pending
decision to attend or not.
