Pakistan’s president: India’s military buildup ties his hands

Associated Press

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said today that neighboring India’s military buildup and bluster are tying his hands in dealing with the Islamic extremism that New Delhi blames for a deadly attack on its Parliament.

Musharraf, who has portrayed himself as a liberal, is finding himself under increasing pressure to crack down on fundamentalists operating in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. He already has arrested dozens of militants and frozen the bank accounts of the two groups India says orchestrated the Dec. 13 Parliament attack, but says he needs evidence from India to do more.

Lalit Mansingh, India’s ambassador to the United States, told "Fox News Sunday" that the moves were "too little, too late … because we want to have Pakistan take decisive action to shut down the terrorist groups within that country."

"We do expect further attacks. And we’re not going to sit back and wait for them," Mansingh said, trying to equate India’s actions with the U.S. response to the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

The situation was relatively quiet near the border today although some people continued to evacuate, fearing that the escalating war of words and the advance deployment of troops and ordnance could spark open conflict. Indian security officials in Kashmir said the insurgents have carried out few attacks in recent days.

"The militants are temporarily in hibernation," said R.S. Bhullar, deputy inspector-general of India’s Border Security Force. "Due to the pressure on Pakistan, the terrorists’ mentors might have advised them not to take action."

However, police said gunmen forced their way into a home Saturday night in Kantha, a remote village in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, and fatally shot a Hindu woman, two of her sons, and a visiting relative.

Small arms fire was reported early today on the frontier near Jammu, the winter capital of the Indian state, but such skirmishes are common and military officials described the situation as calm.

Cross-border firing in Kashmir escalated in the wake of the Parliament assault that killed 14, including the five attackers, and at least 20,000 people have fled their homes or been evacuated on the Indian side alone.

Hindu-dominated India accuses overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan of fomenting violence in its Muslim-majority state of Kashmir, where Islamic guerrillas are fighting for independence or merger with Pakistan. The other part of Kashmir is in Pakistan, which says it gives only political support to the militants.

At home and in the international community, Musharraf is walking a tightrope. If he acts quickly against Pakistan’s guerrilla groups, he runs the risk of their aligning against him and threatening his government. If he doesn’t, he continues to anger India and annoy the United States, which is pressing hard on its new ally in Islamabad to squash terrorism.

Musharraf has said he wants to stop religious violence and establish Pakistan as a moderate and liberal Muslim nation. He met today with leaders of most mainstream political parties as part of his efforts to build a consensus and support.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee held similar meetings as the nuclear neighbors sought ways to back down from their latest crisis without losing face.

"I want to eradicate militancy, extremism and intolerance from Pakistani society," the state-run news agency quoted Musharraf as saying. "I would like to eradicate all kinds of terrorism from the soil of Pakistan … and avoid this extremism and intolerance in our society.

"The tension created by India on our borders, in fact, is creating obstacles and hurdles, and it is slowing down the process."

Musharraf said he has received calls calling for restraint from President Bush, French President Jacques Chirac, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi and other world leaders.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush on Saturday urged Musharraf "to take additional strong and decisive measures to eliminate the extremists who seek to harm India, undermine Pakistan, provoke a war between India and Pakistan and destabilize the international coalition against terrorism."

Musharraf told today’s meeting that Pakistan wants peace and de-escalation but its forces would strike back hard if attacked.

"We only hope that sanity prevails," Musharraf said.

Both countries tested nuclear weapons in 1998, raising the stakes in their long-standing rivalry, but both have said there is no possibility that the current squabble will escalate into a nuclear war.

In an interview published today in The Hindustan Times newspaper, India’s hawkish Defense Minister George Fernandes starkly warned that if one were to break out, "Pakistan would be finished. We could take a strike, survive and then hit back."

In New Delhi, Vajpayee won support from senior leaders of 11 political parties, including eight opposition groups. He met with them to consolidate political consensus amid the face-off with Pakistan.

"Nobody from the government side suggested any military aggression," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan said.