By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
The Washington Post
NEW DELHI, India — India deployed ballistic missile batteries and increased fighter-jet patrols along its border with Pakistan on Wednesday, Indian officials said, as tensions deepened between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
The buildup of troops and weapons on both sides of the border is part of a tit-for-tat escalation in the wake of a terrorist attack on India’s parliament earlier this month that authorities blame on Muslim militant groups based in Pakistan.
India’s defense minister, George Fernandes, confirmed Wednesday that the country’s missile systems, which include Russian medium-range missiles as well as truck-launched rockets made in India, are "in position." Fernandes did not elaborate, but Indian defense officials said the missile batteries were deployed close to the border in response to similar moves by Pakistan over the past few days.
Both nations possess nuclear weapons, and two years ago carried out nuclear tests, but precise details of the new deployments are not known, nor is it clear that missiles dispatched to the border have nuclear warheads.
"It is a very dangerous gray area," said Uday Bhaskar, deputy director of the Institute for Defense and Strategic Analysis in New Delhi. "The nuclear question mark has drastically raised the stakes of this confrontation."
Indian officials said they are strongly considering military strikes against Pakistan if it does not stamp out the militant groups that are fighting to end Indian rule in Kashmir, a Himalayan region claimed by both countries. Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has condemned the parliament attack, but said he will not move against the militants, whom he calls "freedom fighters," without evidence of their involvement, which India has thus far refused to share with Pakistan.
U.S. officials have voiced concern that the escalating tensions could hinder efforts to capture members of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network attempting to flee from Afghanistan into Pakistan. An outbreak of fighting between Pakistan and India could result in a redeployment of the more than 60,000 Pakistani soldiers stationed along the Afghan border and could affect the U.S. military’s ability to use Pakistani military bases, which have been an important staging ground for operations inside Afghanistan.
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