Posted on 05/18/2002 10:30:32 AM PDT by HeliumAvid
Indian Army on six-hour alert
18 May 2002: The Indian Army has been put on a six-hour alert and the cabinet committee on security will today consider military options against Pakistani terrorism that revolve around air raids on terror camps and limited capture of strategic territory, top officials said.
Officials also said that the Indian Army has been put on less than six-hour alert in the northern sector where an Indian offensive is being planned against Pakistan.
Indian forces were so far on training mode.
India deployed the largest strength of troops since the 1971 Bangladesh War on the common border with Pakistan following the 13-December-2001 Pakistani terrorist attack on Indian Parliament.
Officials said that all non-field formations responsible for setting up supply routes have been pressed into action again.
“The focus is on a limited offensive in the northern sector,” an official said.
Military circles are widely discussing an old option to seize Haji Pir pass captured and returned in the 1965 war with Pakistan.
A captured Haji Pir will connect Uri to Poonch and limit cross-border terrorism.
In a winter offensive, India was planning to open a second front in the desert.
But officials said that most of the strike elements have been moved to Punjab.
Analysts said that this indicated that if the war escalates, India could open a second front in the plains of Punjab.
“Our understanding,” said an official, “is that if Pakistan does use the limited nuclear strike option against our troops, it would be better to face it in the scarcely-populated desert than in agriculturally-rich, densely-populated Punjab.”
This is one major drawback with opening a second front into Pakistan from Punjab.
Officials said that India expects the United States to come down heavily on Pakistan either if it escalates the conventional war (which India thinks it cannot win) or if it goes for a nuclear strike.
18 May 2002: The director-general of military operations (DGMO), Lieutenant-General S.S.Chahal, has updated prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on the location of terror camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and their operational strategy, top officials said.
The Union government is considering various options to retaliate against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and surgical strikes on terror camps across the border is one of them.
The army routinely tracks terrorist activities in PoK so that ground operations may be launched at short notice.
The Indian Army has been placed on high alert since the 13-December-2001 Pakistani terrorist attack on Parliament and the possibility of military action has increased after the Kaluchak incident.
Sounds like the same ol' Poonch and Judi show to me...............
The Pak's are very aware that they have terrorists making incursions into India. I just don't know how much more the Pak government can take before the whole country goes into melt down and chaos. This is my worry.
If this happens, the Mullahs will gain more power and the situation would furthur complicate our mission plans. I believe the Pak's are making progress but it is going to take time.
By October 1995 20 pre-production Prithvi SS-150s had been delivered to the Army to form the 333rd Artillery/Missile Group [Regiment] of the XIth Corps, based in Hyderabad.
In addition to four Tatra transport-erector-launchers, each battery is equipped with a missile resupply-loading vehicle, a propellant tanker, a survey vehicle, and a firing command post. The 333rd reportedly consists of 15 launchers and some 75 missiles. As many as 100 missiles have been ordered by the Army. Appropriate training in three phases, covering missile sub-system, handling and maintenance has been provided to operating forces.
US media reports in early June 1997 suggested that India had deployed the missile in Punjab, close to the Pakistan border, bringing Islamabad, Lahore, Faislabad and Rawalpindi within the striking range of Indian forces. Indian authorities subsequently denied the report. The 333 Regiment with between two and four dozen Prithvi missiles was originally deployed near the Pakistan border at Jullundur [Jalandhar], but as of mid-1999 was reportedly deloyed to a base in Secunderabad. The United States had urged India not to proceed with the deployment of the Prithvi missiles because deployment could increase tensions between India and Pakistan. While the Prithvi is normally equipped with conventional warheads, it is also capable of mounting a nuclear warhead.
...*quittin'* time?
US/inja come to some arrangement over theaters and occupation zones; take the rump of the pakistani army
that's secular and pro-western and use it and the indian military to completely eradicate and wipe out al-qaeda.
They'll have an escape route into China, though.
They are more important than Saddam, in my humble opinion.
If he had not done so and continued his war with Iran, I believe the picture would be alot different today. That is why I still believe that no win can be achieved without cutting off the head of the snake. The ripples off that would be felt throughout Islam and perhaps a global war against Islam could be avoided.
Just a thought.
Very likely. It needn't include all of Pakistan, nor threaten Pakistan with total military defeat. Who knows, Musharraf himself may have agreed to a specific battlefield as well. Very civilized.
The Mohammadans have been complete and utter losers for a couple of centuries by now. What makes you think that THIS time they'll get the message?
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