Gen may go to UN as Pak, US fear India set to strike in PoK

The New York Times quoted American officials as saying today that they were worried India is already ‘‘taking the steps needed to go to war’’. And that the first of these might be an air or commando strike on training camps for militants in PoK. The paper said more than 70 such camps have recently sprung up. The NYT also talked of the ‘‘broad impatience’’ with perceived American hypocrisy on terrorism and quoted Indian officials as saying that senior Army officers were eager for revenge. It expressed concern for the safety of American forces searching for Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives in Pakistan.

Pakistan Defence spokesman Maj Gen Rashid Qureshi also talked of a possible Indian attack on PoK at a meeting with editors and senior journalists in Lahore yesterday. Claiming that India would think a ‘‘hundred times’’ before launching a full-scale war on Pakistan, he added it might attack PoK and the ‘‘working boundary’’. He said Islamabad was prepared for any eventuality. A report said Pakistan had restricted movement of people living in its towns located near the border with India. The Pakistani government will also shortly convene an all-party conference to garner support for steps being taken to deal with the situation.

‘‘India must remember that Pakistan is not Palestine, which can be easily attacked,’’ Qureshi said, adding any attempts of ‘‘hot pursuit’’ by India across PoK might lead to a war. However, he said, due to the difficult terrain of PoK, where aircraft and talks could not be used, India was not in a position to make a thrust into the area. In London, the British media warned India was ready to take some ‘‘fateful decisions’’. The Sunday Times told its readers the Indian Cabinet had met in a ‘‘rarely used war room’’ yesterday and expelled Pakistan High Commissioner Ashraf Jehangir Qazi. Talking to a private TV channel in New Delhi, the said envoy called the decision to remove him ‘‘disappointing’’. ‘‘But I understand the Indians felt they had to do something and this was the easiest step to take,’’ Qazi said. ‘‘Personally I will be sorry to leave India. I have had a wonderful time here.’’ He also called for an impartial probe into the Kaluchak massacre, saying it couldn’t be realistically connected to his country. When it was pointed out that India said those involved in the October 1 Assembly attack in Jammu and Kashmir, the December 13 attack on Parliament and the Kaluchak incident were Pakistanis, the High Commissioner shot back: ‘‘This is your claim.’’ He also denied that any of the 20 terrorists named in a list given by India to Islamabad, including Dawood Ibrahim, were in Pakistan.

Besides reiterating this, Dawn today said Pakistan will be telling other countries that it is impossible to stop infiltration across the LoC as most of those crossing over belonged to divided families living on both sides of the border. If India could not stop this infiltration despite the deployment on the LoC, how could Pakistan, its envoys will ask.