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India Launches Large-Scale War Games Near Pakistan
NEW DELHI, May 5 (News Agencies) - India on Saturday began its largest military maneuvers in 13 years and said the one of the main objectives of the exercise along Pakistan's border would be to train troops in tactical measures in a nuclear conflict.
"The exercises have started. In the initial stages, reconnaissance will take place during which the enemy will be identified," Colonel Shruti Kant, a spokesman for the Indian army, said.
"The final assault will take place on May 10th," he added.
More than 60,000 troops, heavy armor, such as Russian built T-72 tanks, and around 100 transport and combat aircraft are involved in the mammoth five-day war games in the Bikaner sector of the northern desert state of Rajasthan.
The Indian Air Force, which held its own exercises involving more than 100 combat jets last year, will launch ground attacks during the exercise, codenamed "Complete Victory".
The maneuvers will end with the firing of high-caliber live ammunition rockets and other battlefield missiles in India's nuclear weapons test zone of Pokhran in Rajasthan, sources said.
New Delhi has said it had given advance notice to Islamabad of its corps-level - about 60,000 men - exercises to avoid military tensions with its neighbor.
However, Pakistan on Wednesday said India's claims that it had given advance information of the exercise were "not correct".
India had earlier told Pakistan that it would conduct two separate division-size - roughly 20,000 men - exercises in mid-May in Bikaner and Hoshiarpur areas and would remain 90 to 150 kilometers (56-93 miles) from Pakistan's border, Islamabad said.
This exercise was to take place in mid-May, whereas the exercise announced on Monday would happen in early May, the Pakistani government said.
Under a 1991 agreement between the two countries, each side is required to give advance notice to the other of all exercises at corps level within a distance of 75 kilometers (43 miles) from the border.
Despite the protests, witnesses reported that columns of armor had rolled into the hot deserts of Rajasthan for the May 5-10 event.
The exercises are a result of a decision taken during a military commanders' conference held in New Delhi in April.
The maneuvers aim to "evaluate concepts and practice battle procedures during offensive and defensive operations on the future battlefield, with a nuclear backdrop," the defense ministry has said.
"The operation aims to enhance the army's operational preparedness through the conduct of a number of tactical exercises with troops and live firing under simulated battle conditions.
"Drills and procedures to meet challenges of a nuclear, chemical or biological strike will be also practiced," it added.
"Complete Victory" will be on the same scale as India's "Brass Tacks" war games in Rajasthan in 1987 that brought India and Pakistan close to actual war.
India's 1.3-million army has been devising ways to develop a "leaner and meaner" military with the capability of withstanding a first nuclear strike in battlefield conditions.
India, which conducted a string of nuclear weapons tests in May 1998, has offered the doctrine of "no first use" but says it would develop a command and control system which will survive a first nuclear strike and respond with at least three waves of attacks.
Pakistan, which has fought three wars with India, also conducted tit-for-tat nuclear blasts and has said it was honing its missile technology to build up a nuclear deterrent against India.
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