Posted on 12/24/2001 5:02:24 PM PST by The Magical Mischief Tour
Tuesday December 25, 3:50 AM
Pakistan military warns of nuclear conflict with India By Raja Asghar
CHAKOTHI, Pakistan (Reuters) - A senior Pakistani army officer said on Monday continued border clashes with India could spark an uncontrollable flareup involving nuclear weapons.
The two neighbours have reinforced positions on either side of their disputed border in Kashmir since a December 13 suicide attack on the Indian parliament which killed 14 people. New Delhi blamed two militant groups based in Muslim Pakistan.
Local sources said on Monday that Pakistan's army had deployed anti-aircraft guns and moved most troops from the eastern garrison town of Sialkot to the border with India.
Pakistani and Indian troops only watched each other with distrust from bunkers on either side of a broken bridge at Chakothi in the west of disputed Kashmir when a group of journalists visited the Pakistani side of the front line.
But both sides reported exchanges of fresh mortar and heavy machinegun fire elsewhere in Kashmir and New Delhi expelled a Pakistani diplomat, raising tensions between the nuclear-armed adversaries ever higher.
Pakistani Brigadier Mohammad Yaqub said the situation was "highly explosive".
"Because in that situation, that tension, even a small little incident can result in a chain reaction which nobody will be able to control," he told Reuters Television at Muzaffarabad, capital of the Pakistani-held part of Kashmir.
He said an all-out war between the two nations could "become really horrific for the entire world".
Asked if nuclear weapons could be used, Yaqub, giving what he called his personal view, said:
"But if there is a war between the two countries and if any country feels that it comes to its own survival, probably there won't be any hesitation to use nuclear weapons."
A brief statement from the military's public relations department said the top-brass of Pakistan's armed forces met in the garrison town of Rawalpindi and "discussed matters relating to defence, national security and professional aspects".
A source in Sialkot, just a few miles from the border in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, said most of the troops had left the cantonment.
"The movement of troops to and from the border has increased. It is more than in routine times," he said.
Artillery exchanges have increased recently in the Sharkargarh-Zafarwal sector of the working boundary, a 220-km (136-mile) stretch of border between the line of control dividing mountainous Kashmir, and the frontier that runs down the plains in an eastward direction up to the Arabian Sea.
A senior local official in Sialkot said the army movements to and from the border had "not been very obvious," but declined to go into detail.
New Delhi accuses Pakistan of fomenting a decade-old revolt in Muslim-majority Kashmir. Pakistan denies sponsoring the rebellion, saying it only provides moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri struggle for self-determination.
Kashmir's main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, asked the two nations to exercise restraint in the region, which has triggered two of the three wars they have fought since independence from Britain in 1947.
What is it with the middle east / sub asia?
Has their view on life, religeon et al. become so polluted that they are willing to risk their own destruction?
God the world needs an enema...
Asian "zero population growth" at work.
This is really true.
"But if there is a war between the two countries and if any country feels that it comes to its own survival, probably there won't be any hesitation to use nuclear weapons."
This is true, too.
If successful they may give these two nut job nations time to reflect on the values of their founder, Gandhi. Their hatred killed him, maybe now is the time for the sub continent tonhave a second chance. There will be no third chance.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, while not the pacifist that Gandhi was, would never have supported this nonsense. He put a lot of effort into creating Pakistan to want to see these nimrods blow it all up.
If I were the person who invented Nuclear power, I would have to wonder if I had gone that "one step" over the line, and just what price will I pay for this one.
And then there is "GM" seeds, Genetic Engineering on the human species...
Just how far will we be allowed to go without paying a "HUGE" price.
"Food for thought"
DL
"If I were the person who invented Nuclear power, I would have to wonder if I had gone that "one step" over the line, and just what price will I pay for this one."
Be assured that the same was pondered about gunpowder, artillery, the capital ship, the jet fighter and, for that matter, chariots and Greek fire.
We live. We learn.
We hope. And pray.
If what he means are the present governments it is indeed hot.
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