Pak army behind intrusions 8212; Asian weekly

NEW DELHI, JUNE 17: The clearest vindication of the Indian position that the Pakistani army is behind the infiltrators in Kargil has iron...

NEW DELHI, JUNE 17: The clearest vindication of the Indian position that the Pakistani army is behind the infiltrators in Kargil has ironically come from Pakistanis writing in foreign publications. Writing in the June 17 issue of the Far Eastern Economic Review, Islamabad correspondent Ahmed Rashid has quoted Western defence officials and diplomats as saying that the Indian claim that Pakistani regulars are involved in the Line of Control LoC incursions 8220;was eminently plausible8221;.

According to Rashid8217;s article, the unidentified sources say 8220;several hundred troops belonging to two regular Pakistani mountain brigades 8212; the 3rd and 4th Northern Light Infantry 8212; are deployed along the heights above Kargil in Indian-held Kashmir, actually outnumbering the approximately 200 Kashmiri militants dug in alongside8221;.

The story adds that the troops and militants holding 15 km along the LoC have heralded the most successful Pakistani intrusion into Indian-held Kashmir8217; since the Kashmir insurgency beganin 1989 and the most serious shift in the LoC since the 1971 war. It also goes on to say that one of the implications of this direct involvement would be to indicate that the Pakistani Army, led by 8220;an increasingly Islamicist officer corps8221;, is again making foreign policy, with or without the support of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Rashid says 8220;many senior Pakistani officials privately criticise the Army8217;s action, but are not prepared to say so publicly. They fear that acknowledging the Army8217;s role will lead India to distrust Pakistan in any future dialogue, while incurring diplomatic ire and economic isolation from the West8221;.

He8217;s not the only voice from Pakistan which disputes Pakistan8217;s official stand on the intruders. Writing for the International Herald Tribune, Mansoor Ijaz, chairman of Crescent Investment Management, says Pakistan has at least acknowledged that 8220;some rogue wing of its military intelligence units might have provided more than moral8217; assistance to the Himalayanguerrillas8221;. The edit page article, written before the Sartaj Aziz-Jaswant Singh talks also says that the Pakistan Foreign Minister has to call the infiltrators 8220;Kashmiri freedom fighters8221; for domestic consumption.

These two voices are remarkable given that the broad view on the infiltrators among Pakistani journalists and military experts echoes that of the Pakistan Government.