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India Refuses to Share Evidence With Pakistan, Rejects Talks
NEW DELHI, Dec. 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - India toughened its line on Pakistan Thursday, ruling out a leaders' summit next month and refusing to share evidence with Islamabad of a deadly attack on parliament it says was instigated by Pakistani intelligence, news agencies reported.
Tensions ratcheted up after hundreds of tanks were seen rumbling towards the Indian border with Pakistan and Indian troops allegedly shelled civilians in Pakistani Kashmir.
India is reported to have carried out further deployments of military equipment near its border with Pakistan, reported BBC's online service.
Army vehicles were seen on the move in Rajasthan state, which shares a 1,000 kilometer-long border with Pakistan.
Local authorities in the city of Jodhpur conducted a blackout exercise overnight, which they said was part of civil defense training, BBC reported Thursday.
There were similar reports of Indian troop movements in Punjab state on Wednesday.
The Indian Defense Ministry, however, has played down speculation about the troop movements, describing them as routine. A spokesman in Delhi said Thursday that the movements were part of winter military exercises, BBC reported.
Meanwhile, the men who carried out the attack on India's parliament had been in contact with a Pakistan-based militant group before launching the operation aimed at wiping out India's political leadership, the alleged mastermind of the assault said Thursday, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.
"The motive was to eliminate the political establishment. The plan was to get inside the Lok Sabha [Indian lower house of parliament] and kill them there," Mohammed Afzal said in an interview with the private Indian Star television channel.
According to Delhi police, Afzal is a suspected Kashmiri activist who masterminded the December 13 attack and belongs to the one of two Pakistan-based outfits India has accused of carrying out the attack.
Prior to the attack, Afzal said the leader of the assailants had been in telephone contact "with his parents [in Pakistan] and his colleagues in Jaish [I'Mohammed]".
Afzal gave the interview while in police custody, having been picked up in Kashmir shortly after the December 13 attack, in which five gunmen stormed the parliament complex, killing nine people. All five were gunned down before they could enter parliament itself.
"They had initially thought of targeting the Delhi municipal assembly," Afzal said, adding that several foreign embassies, which he declined to identify, were also considered.
"They ultimately decided, due to the session going on, to go for parliament."
In the interview excerpt broadcast on Star, Afzal admitted only to bringing the gunmen to New Delhi and providing them with "all facilities" in the capital.
According to Afzal, the gunmen had carried a stock of dried fruit to the operation, "in case they had to stay in parliament for some time."
An hour before launching their assault, the assailants called Afzal asking for information as to which political leaders were attending the parliament session.
Afzal said he monitored the session on television and relayed what he saw to the attackers, but a sudden power cut prevented him from continuing.
Despite U.S. appeals, India said it would not share evidence with Pakistan that last week's attack was carried out by two Pakistan-based groups at the behest of Pakistani military intelligence.
"We are going ahead to share this evidence only with our friends and partners who are united in their determination to fight terrorism," foreign ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao said Thursday, reported AFP.
Islamabad has strongly denied any involvement in the December 13 attack and offered to carry out a joint investigation with India into the incident.
Rao said that because of Pakistan's "unresponsiveness in taking action against terrorist groups operating from its soil against India," Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee would not hold talks next month with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on the sidelines of a regional summit in Nepal.
She said incidents such as the parliament attack "are not propitious to create the right climate for dialogue".
There had been hopes that Vajpayee and Musharraf might meet on the margins of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit being held January 4-6 in the Nepalese capital, Katmandu.
The two leaders have not met since a July summit in the Indian city of Agra, which ended in deadlock largely due to the countries' dispute over Kashmir.
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