Posted on 05/17/2002 4:51:52 AM PDT by maquiladora
The Indian government is due to outline its response to this week's militant attack on an army camp in Jammu in Indian-administered Kashmir, which claimed 34 lives.
Parliament in Delhi is expected to adopt a resolution condemning Tuesday's attack with support from across the political spectrum.
There have been widespread calls in India for retaliation against Pakistan, which Delhi says backs the Kashmiri separatists blamed for the bloodiest attack in the region since last October.
Hours before the parliamentary debate began, Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged machine gun and mortar fire across their border south of Jammu, Kashmir's winter capital.
The two sides routinely trade small arms fire across the border, but Indian defence officials have described the latest exchanges as the heaviest in the past six months.
In parliament, India's hardline Home Minister, LK Advani, was due to make a statement on India's next move, drawn up at a meeting of senior officials on Thursday.
At the meeting, top military commanders briefed the defence and home ministers on the Jammu attack.
The chief of the Indian army, General S Padmanabhan, hinted on Thursday that India may go on the offensive in Kashmir.
"I don't want to go into the specifics but the time for action has come," the army chief told Indian television reporters.
The Reuters news agency quoted analysts as saying India was weighing up the risk of a limited strike targeting rebel bases in the Pakistan-administered portion of Kashmir.
Both sides have deployed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border since militants launched a grenade attack on the Indian parliament in December.
The United States has been urging caution and restraint on both sides, fearing that tension over Kashmir could erupt into direct fighting between the two nuclear neighbours.
A spokesman for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told the Associated Press that Islamabad would not be intimidated by Delhi.
"If India resorts to threats ... to bully Pakistan, then Pakistan ... will do everything in its power to protect itself," General Rashid Qureshi was quoted as saying.
Pakistan has in the past not ruled out the use of nuclear weapons.
India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since independence from Britain in 1947.
The latest exchanges of mortar fire were reported in the Samba and Hiranagar sectors in the south of Jammu and Kashmir state.
An Indian police spokesman told the BBC a boy was killed and another three people were injured in the Pakistani fire.
More than 3,000 villagers have fled to safer areas away from the border, the spokesman said.
An Indian police spokesman told the BBC a boy was killed and another three people were injured in the Pakistani fire.
More than 3,000 villagers have fled to safer areas away from the border, the spokesman said.
Nearly 100,000 migrants from the borders are already living in various makeshift camps in Jammu.
More than 35,000 people have been killed in the region since Muslim militants launched an insurgency in 1989.
India accuses Pakistan of funding and training the militants. Islamabad denies the charge, but says it extends moral and diplomatic support to what it describes as Kashmir's freedom fighters.
Let's Roll!
India must not only strike back at Pakistani aggression, but also remove its Muslim fifth column to that country.
The Muslims did not keep their agreement in 1947, of course they never DO keep an agreement with the infidel. LOL.
These Muslims were to have all gone to Pakistan, in exchange for the non-Muslims in Pakistan to have left and come to India. The latter migration DID take place, but while many Muslims did leave India, I doubt it was hardly more than half of them, with tens of millions lingering behind, with typical Muslim birth rates swiftly making that into HUNDREDS of millions, and the Indians will lose their country if something is not done.
I think that experts from India need to be brought to Washington to advise USA on how to deal with Islam longer term.
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