-Caveat Lector-
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020529-11796690.htm
May 29, 2002
Al Qaeda, Taliban linked to Kashmir
By Beth Duff-Brown
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW DELHI � India said yesterday that al Qaeda terrorists and
remnants of Afghanistan's Taliban have moved into Pakistan-
controlled Kashmir, and it said American forces in the region would
not deter military action against Pakistan.
"We have information that the number of terrorists who are on
the other side of the border [are] people who have fled from
Afghanistan, al Qaeda men and Talibanis," Indian Defense Minister
George Fernandes told Star News Television.
Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh separately said, "The
physical presence of U.S. troops in certain parts of Pakistan is
clearly known to us and it is not an inhibiting factor in policy
determination."
Meanwhile a senior U.S. defense official in Washington,
speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there are signs that
Pakistani troops are preparing to move toward Kashmir from the
Pakistan-Afghanistan border, where they are searching for al Qaeda
fighters and Taliban members.
The warning of al Qaeda fighters in Kashmir came as India
sharply criticized a speech by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf
a day earlier, in which he said Pakistan would fight back "with full
might" if attacked by India.
Mr. Singh repeated India's charge that Gen. Musharraf has done
little to curb cross-border infiltration by Islamic militants into Indian-
controlled Kashmir. He also called his speech Monday night
"disappointing and dangerous."
"Disappointing as it merely repeats some earlier reassurances
that remain unfulfilled today," Mr. Singh said. "Dangerous because
of deliberate posturing; tensions have been added, not reduced."
The nuclear-armed South Asian rivals also cranked up their war
rhetoric after Pakistan test-fired another missile, which is capable of
carrying nuclear warheads into India.
The Abdali missile fired yesterday was the third nuclear-capable
rocket tested by Pakistan since Saturday.
Despite international pressure, India said yesterday that it was
unlikely that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee would hold talks
with Gen. Musharraf.
"You cannot put a pistol of terrorism to my temple with the finger
on the trigger and say, 'Dialogue with me, or I will release this trigger
of terrorism,'" Mr. Singh said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to bring Mr. Vajpayee
and Gen. Musharraf together during an Asian summit in Kazakhstan
next week.
Pakistan has accepted, but Mr. Singh reiterated that India would
not resume dialogue until Pakistan stopped attacks by Pakistan-
based Islamic militants.
Addressing concerns that the subcontinental rivalry could
unleash a war between the two nations, Mr. Singh restated India's
policy that it would not strike first with nuclear weapons.
"India has not ever spoken of nuclear weapons," he said.
After a NATO luncheon in Italy, Secretary-General George
Robertson said President Bush, Mr. Putin and 18 other alliance
leaders "share a deep common concern" and urged India and
Pakistan "to de-escalate and resume talking together."
Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesman in Islamabad responded to
Mr. Singh yesterday by saying India first deployed troops at the
border.
"The intemperate and shrill statements by its leaders have also
served to heighten tensions between the two countries," he said,
speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Britain, meanwhile, kept up diplomatic pressure on Pakistan.
"President Musharraf is under no doubt about expectations of the
international community to take action, as well as the action he
already has taken, to crack down on cross-border terrorism," British
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said after meeting Gen. Musharraf.
Mr. Straw planned to see Mr. Vajpayee in New Delhi today.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since achieving
independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over Kashmir. Both
nations claim the Himalayan province in its entirety.
The two nations put 1 million troops on high alert on both sides of
the border after New Delhi blamed Pakistan-based militants for a
December suicide assault on the Indian Parliament.
The troops regularly exchange gunfire and heavy artillery and
mortar fire.
Relations were further strained two weeks ago after an assault
on an Indian army base in Kashmir killed 33 persons.
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