By Rama Lakshmi
The Washington Post
NEW DELHI — India said Saturday it was expelling Pakistan’s ambassador in response to an attack by Islamic militants in the disputed region of Kashmir, raising tensions yet again between the nuclear-armed neighbors. The two sides traded heavy fire across the border for a second day.
"This is a clear and unambiguous articulation of our concern that we have seen no diminishing in Pakistan’s support to terrorism," said Nirupama Rao, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman.
The announcement followed a two-hour meeting during which Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, top cabinet ministers and military and intelligence officials discussed Tuesday’s attack on an army camp that killed 31 people, including soldiers’ wives and children. The Indian government has linked the three gunmen, who were later killed, to Pakistan.
Several lawmakers had demanded that India sever relations with Pakistan or retaliate militarily.
In Islamabad, a Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman said that expelling Ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi would "add to tension, whereas efforts should be in reduction of tension."
"Pakistan, despite this action of India, which has disappointed us, will continue to strive to resolve all issues with India through negotiations and through peaceful means," spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan told state-run Pakistan Television.
The Indian Foreign Ministry said this was the first time New Delhi had ever expelled a Pakistani ambassador. Qazi was given one week to leave the country. India has refused to deal with him directly since a Dec. 13 attack by armed militants on the Indian Parliament complex, which India blamed on two Pakistani groups. The groups, Lashkar-i-Taiba and Jaish-i-Muhammad, were banned in January by Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, when he promised to clamp down on militant groups.
After the attack on the Parliament complex, India withdrew its ambassador from Pakistan and suspended rail and air links. The two countries have deployed about a million soldiers and artillery along their 1,800-mile border.
India accuses Pakistan of training and sending into Kashmir armed Islamic guerrillas who have been fighting to end India’s rule in the violence-wracked region, the only majority-Muslim state in predominantly Hindu India. Pakistan asserts that it provides only moral support to what it says is a legitimate freedom struggle.
Pakistan has denied any hand in Tuesday’s attack, and no organization has claimed responsibility. But Vajpayee’s government has been under enormous pressure to take tough action against militant groups operating from Pakistan. The United States, which has troops on Pakistani soil for its military campaign against al Qaeda, has urged both countries to exercise restraint.
"We have two weak governments in India and Pakistan who possess a very strong weapon," said S.K. Singh, a former Indian foreign secretary. "If they are foolish, they can bring death and destruction to all of us."
India and Pakistan traded heavy gunfire and mortar shelling for a second day across the Line of Control, which separates the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled portions of Kashmir. Each side blamed the other for starting the fighting.
Indian military officials said four soldiers were wounded, while three civilians were killed and seven others wounded in the most intense cross-border firing this year, the Associated Press reported. Pakistani military officials said two people were killed and 15 wounded-including two children-when Indian soldiers fired across the border.
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