Indo-Pakistan war of words gets more shrill

Earlier in the day, Fernandes said that the Pakistan-Afghanistan region wasan epicentre for transnational terrorism which was “sustained by drugtrafficking, money laundering and driven by Islamic extremism.” And that aninternational coalition was needed to tackle this challenge.

“There was not only sympathy but much more than that for hijackers inKandahar,” Fernandes told a two-day international conference on Asiansecurity in the 21st century. External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh hadbeen criticized for escorting three terrorists in exchange for the releaseof the hostages and “lavishing praise” on the Taliban regime.

But Fernandes said that at that point, the Taliban had facilitated theIndian negotiating team and “beyond that we have not gone to compliment theTaliban regime.”

He said that Pakistan, especially its military and ISI, had beenrationalising the use of terror as a legitimate activity sanctioned byIslam. In reference to last year’s Kargil war, he said that after thenuclear tests, Pakistan’s military and political leadership had erred injudgement that it could “take Kashmir” and carry out aggression across theLine of Control using “nuclear blackmail.” Pakistan, Fernandes said, hadnot absorbed the “real meaning” of nuclearisation: “That it can deteronly the use of nuclear weapons, but not all and any war.”

He said the decline in India’s defence spending (from 3.6 per cent of GDP in1987 to 2.3 per cent last year) had seriously affected modernisation and theprocess of restoring it had begun. “We must possess conventional capabilityof a sufficiently high level in order to lift the nuclear threshold as muchas possible,” he said.

Meanwhile, India on Monday officially rejected Pakistan’s military ruler GenPervez Musharraf’s allegation that Indians had recently crossed the Line ofControl in Jammu and kashmir. Brushing aside Musharraf’s remarks thatIndians were not refraining from crossing the LoC, a Foreign Officespokesman said: “It is pointless telling India this. It was Pakistan whichhad violated the LoC during the Kargil conflict.

Meanwhile, a Pak military commander of the Chamb sector on the LoC toldreporters visiting Ghagian camp that five missing Pakistani soldiers chasedretreating Indian soldiers into Indian territory.

New Delhi today released the pictures of five slain Pakistani servicemen whowere allegedly attempting to enter Indian territory in the Akhnoor sector ofKashmir during the weekend.

The Pakistani commander, however, said Pakistan’s Akbar post in the Chambsector was ambushed by about 100 Indian troops at 3:30 a.m. Saturday. Thepost was defended by a 20-man platoon from the Baluch Regiment, he said.

Pak yet to claim bodies
NEW DELHI: The bodies of the five Pakistani soldiers killed inPallanwala sector of Jammu region on January 21 are still lying with theIndian Army with Islamabad maintaining a "stony silence" and yet to claimthem, defence sources said here on Monday.