Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Stepping up the heat on Pakistan amid reports of movement of its troops from the western border trickled in, New Delhi today urged Washington and Islamabad’s friends China, Saudi Arabia and Iran to use their leverage and get Islamabad to dismantle its terror infrastructure.
The government backed this with an advisory that “it would be unsafe for Indians to travel or be in Pakistan”.
This came after Pak media reports that Indian nationals, “suspected” to be behind the Lahore blast, were arrested. Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma called the claim “hogwash” — in fact, a pro-Taliban group claimed responsibility for the blast.
Said the MEA spokesperson: “Since it has also been reported in the Pak media yesterday that the senior police officer in Lahore was unaware of the arrest in his city, it seems this is the work of other agencies in Pakistan that operate outside the law and civilian control.”
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee talked to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jeichi on Thursday. He also talked to Iran Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki today and met Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal. Mukherjee’s message was clear: India was dissatisfied over Pak’s “token action.”
On reports of Pak troops being mobilized, Mukherjee, after the Cabinet Committee on Security met this evening, said, “My request to friends in Pakistan would be (that) instead of diverting attention from the real issue, they should concentrate on how to fight against terrorists and how to bring to book the pepetrators of the Mumbai terrorist attack. We have indicated to them that there are ample evidences from the log book of the captured ship (that terrorists used to sail to Mumbai), from the statellite phone (they used) … that elements from Pakistan were responsible (for the Mumbai savagery).”
“Instead of … war hysteria, they should address this menace,” he said.
Yang, sources said, made all the right noises with Mukherjee and condemned the attacks and agreed that the perpetrators should be punished. The Chinese foreign minister asked Mukherjee to “keep talking to Islamabad” to defuse the situation.
The Saudi Prince also met National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and Vice President Hamid Ansari apart from holding talks with Mukherjee during the day-long visit. Sources said Mukherjee and NSA shared details of the Mumbai attacks.
Al-Faisal underlined that the best way to deal with terrorism is to “cut it out” and “destroy it completely.”
The New York Times adds from Islamabad: Pakistan is moving some troops away from its western border with Afghanistan, where the United States has pressed it to combat Taliban militants, and stopping many soldiers from going on leave amid rising tensions with India, senior Pak officials said today.
A senior military official said in an interview that the decision to sharply restrict leave for soldiers was taken “in view of the prevailing environment,” namely the deteriorating relations with India since the Mumbai attacks.
The senior military official said that Pak troops were being drawn from northwestern Pakistan, where the military is fighting Taliban militants on several fronts. He said that “essential troops in limited numbers are being pulled out of areas where no operations are being conducted,” or where winter weather had already limited their ability to maneuver.
The senior official refused to say where the troops would be redeployed, although AP quoted two Pak intelligence officials as saying that the Pakistani Army’s 14th division was being sent to Kasur and Sialkot, near the Indian border, and that around 20,000 troops were being redeployed.
These troop movements may deepen concerns among US officials about Pakistan’s commitment to battling
Taliban militants in the country’s lawless western frontier regions.
