India mulls options as terrorists strike again in Kashmir By Ajit Sahi, Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, May 19 (IANS) India Sunday brought its paramilitary forces and the Coast Guard under the direct command of the defence services in what is seen as a slow but calibrated step to strengthen its defences as heavy firing continued on its border with Pakistan. Even as yet another brazen terrorist strike was reported on an Indian army camp in Jammu and Kashmir that killed three soldiers and a paramilitary trooper, military officials said Indian and Pakistani troops continued to exchange fire across the border for the fourth straight day. After a late evening meeting that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had with his top cabinet ministers, defence chiefs and senior security officials, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh announced that orders placing the paramilitary forces under the command of the army and the Coast Guard under the command of the navy would be issued Monday. No other decision was announced after the meeting of the cabinet committee on security (CCS) even as reporters kept peppering Singh with questions on the possibility of war breaking out on the subcontinent. "You have to read what you have to read. I do what I have to do," Singh said in response to a direct question whether signs of a war could be read in the CCS decision. Besides Singh, Home Minister L.K. Advani, Defence Minister George Fernandes, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and New Delhi's interlocutor on Kashmir K.C. Pant attended the meeting at Vajpayee's official residence. Army chief General Sunderrajan Padmanabhan, navy chief Admiral Madhvendra Singh and air force vice chief S.G. Inamdar also attended the meeting. Earlier Sunday, Vajpayee met opposition leader Sonia Gandhi to mull New Delhi's response to the heightened terrorist violence in Kashmir, even as the machinegun and mortar crossfire continued along the border. More than half a dozen civilians were injured in the Pakistani firing, said an Indian army officer who claimed that a dozen Pakistan army bunkers had been destroyed. In a daring strike 3 a.m. Sunday, terrorists attacked an Indian army camp at Chasana, 150 km north of Jammu, killing three soldiers and one paramilitary trooper and injuring about a dozen. The killings came five days after terrorists massacred 32 people including seven bus passengers and wives and children of soldiers near Jammu. Mounting anger in India has led many to speculate that India is contemplating a military strike against Pakistan, which it blames for a dragging insurgency in Kashmir. Following the May 14 Jammu attack, New Delhi expelled Pakistan High Commissioner Ashraf Jehangir Qazi to protest Islamabad's continued support to Kashmiri separatists. Qazi has described his expulsion as "unfortunate". --Indo-Asian News Service =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-W-E-B---S-I-T-E-=-=-= To Subscribe/Unsubscribe from GoaNet | http://www.goacom.com/goanet =================================================================== For (un)subscribing or for help, Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dont want so many e=mails? Join GoaNet-Digest instead ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Help support non-commercial projects in Goa by advertizing!! * * * * Your ad here !!
