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India
Shells Pakistani Kashmir As Both Sides Build-up Arms
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| Uncertain
future awaits fleeing Kashmiri civilians
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MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, Jan. 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Indian troops shelled two southern districts of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir overnight Tuesday, sending more than 5,000 civilians fleeing the heavily militarized border region.
Intermittent shelling was reported from the Kahuta and Bhedi sectors of the district of Bagh, police superintendent, Sabir Hussain, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Indian forces also fired on Nakyal and Tatta Pani sectors in Kotli district, another official said.
Indian officials confirmed reports that their security forces had destroyed at least 12 Pakistani bunkers and killed 10 Pakistani soldiers in retaliatory gunfire in districts further east towards the de facto border, the Line of Control (LoC).
The exchange of fire happened at Mendhar in Poonch district, said a senior defense official from Indian Kashmir's winter capital, Jammu.
The Pakistani side denied the Indian claims of heavy casualties and damage.
"Neither our bunkers were damaged nor were any of our soldiers killed. India is telling total lies. It is completely false," said Pakistani army spokesperson, Brigadier Soulat Raza.
Pakistani officials said that on Monday morning the Abbaspur sector in Poonch district came under the heaviest shelling in Pakistani Kashmir since last weekend, when one civilian and at least 12 others were injured.
A twelve-year-old boy suffered shrapnel injuries in his legs and arms and several houses were damaged in Monday's firing. Pakistan retaliated with mortar fire, killing two Indian soldiers and seriously injuring five others.
Amid the tense stand-off between the nuclear rivals, more than 5,000 people have fled their homes from 10 villages since Monday in the southernmost Bhimbher district of Pakistani Kashmir, officials said.
Residents in three of the most vulnerable villages in Samahni sector along the LoC -- the de facto border between India and Pakistan in the disputed Himalayan region -- were asked to evacuate their homes.
"We asked them to temporarily move away from the immediate border area for their own safety," a local police official said. "People from seven other nearby villages also decided to leave their homes."
He said two school buildings had been vacated to house the evacuees.
Unlike the majority of Kashmir, the topography of the Bhimbher district is flat. Local authorities fear it could be a prime target for any Indian attack across the LoC.
On Tuesday, Indian officials said that the Indian army has deployed more troops along the Kashmiri border with Pakistan as part of a military blueprint to hold strategic frontier posts through the bitter Himalayan winter.
Armory and logistical support, in the form of heavy weaponry, food convoys and medical units, is also being brought forward towards the volatile Line of Control (LoC) that divides the Indian- and Pakistan-controlled zones of disputed Kashmir.
Udhampur, a garrison city 66 kilometers (41 miles) north from Indian Kashmir's winter capital of Jammu, is also the base of the Indian army's strategic Northern Command.
"Our command is responsible not only for the LoC but for the current deployment along the borders here," a top army commander said on condition of anonymity.
Most officials were reluctant to discuss in detail India's troop movements to and along the border which began shortly after the national parliament in New Delhi was attacked December 13 by five gunmen.
"All we can say is that we are fully prepared and can retaliate at any moment if Pakistan tries anything," said the army's chief spokesman Brigadier P.C. Das.
After four months of uneasy quiet, Palanwalan witnessed a heavy exchange of mortar fire on New Year's Eve, with the rival armies trading around 300 shells as well as small arms fire.
"We were well deployed and now it is a question of reinforcements," said the top official of the Northern Command, which is supported by up to 300,000 combat troops.
The size of the Indian deployment was underlined by the constant stream of military convoys moving along the 300-kilometer (186-mile) highway connecting Jammu with Srinagar, Indian Kashmir's summer capital.
The Indian army has said it is going ahead this month with its biggest military exercise in 15 years along the border with Pakistan, despite concerns that the war games could deepen the current tensions.
Codenamed ‘Operation Chivalry,’ the war games will be bigger than the one conducted in April this year in the same region — the desert state of Rajasthan and neighboring Punjab, reported Pakistani newspaper, The Nation.
The exercise was originally scheduled to begin after January 12 but had been brought forward, army spokesperson, Xavier Thomas, told reporters in Muzaffarabad.
The Indian Express reported Tuesday that the New Indian Air Chief, S. Krishnaswamy, said the Indian Air Force was in the highest state of preparedness.
Air Chief Marshal Krishnaswamy, who took over as the new Air Chief on Monday, said: "Our preparedness depends on what we are called upon to do."
He said the IAF was "looking after the national interest" and there was "a lot of enthusiasm" in the force.
However, he denied having shifted combat aircraft to the western border with Pakistan.
The Nation also reported that in Pakistan, hectic consultations and briefings took place on Monday at the Pakistani General Headquarters to review the preparedness of the Pakistani armed forces.
At a two-hour briefing session at the Command and Operation Center in the morning, Pakistani President, General Pervez Musharraf, was given an update on the operational preparedness of Pakistan Air Force (PAF).
Talking to the PAF, to senior commanders and staff officers at the Command Operation Center, the President said Pakistan was a responsible and peace-loving nation.
“But, let there be no illusion that in case of any aggression committed against Pakistan we will retaliate with complete national will and resolve,” he said.
The president, who was briefed on the operational preparedness of forward bases and the PAF assets in the wake of developing threat on the country’s eastern frontier, expressed complete confidence in the capabilities of PAF.
“In all great battles the numerically inferior forces have overcome their adversaries with better standard of training, will and resolve,” General Musharraf, who is also Chief of Army Staff, said.
He was informed that fuel and ammunition had already reached the forward bases and the PAF pilots were ready to thwart any aggression on a few seconds notice.
“I have no doubts that with present state of operational readiness, faith and conviction, Pakistan Air Force will be able to reply any challenge in a befitting manner,” he said.
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