truthfully, i don't think so. i have family in India, and an Uncle who is a higher up in the state government of Maharashtra... he says that the country is stricken with fear about the tensions between the two nations and appears to be preparing for war... only time will tell, i guess.
anyone see this yet? http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/05/29/nuclear-fears-usat.htm a partial excerpt:
I had plenty of Indian sources to counter that, but you would have denounced them as biased. Here is a Pakistani source that preempts that manuver by you. <A HREF="http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/apr2002-daily/13-04-2002/main/update.htm ">Commander of rebel group killed in Kashmir: Indian army </A> <i> HELD KASHMIR: The chief commander of a prominent Islamic group was killed Sunday with three of his associates, the army said. Abdul Rehman, who commanded Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami (HUJI), was killed by the Indian army in an encounter in the Sonarvani forest area of Bandipora, 60 kilometers (35 miles) north of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar, an army spokesman said. Three other HUJI militants were killed in the battle, <b>two of them from Pakistan</b> and one a local Kashmiri, the spokesman said. </i> <A HREF="http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/may2002-daily/23-05-2002/main/main8.htm">Pakistan is new battleground for foreign militants against the west?</A> <i>KARACHI: The man, who had provided the CID police with graphic details about Daniel Pearl's ghastly murder and had pinpointed his butchered remains to the police, has also revealed that major Pakistani cities may soon witness more suicidal attacks against the westerners and key government personalities, officials with direct knowledge about the interrogation of this new accused person in the Pearl case divulged here on Wednesday. Pakistani security officials believe that because of increased monitoring activities by the military services in the tribal areas, scores of the foreigners, earlier hiding there, have now moved with the help of their trusted Pakistani religious supporters to the populous urban centres, such as Karachi. Specific intelligence information about new terrorism threat to Pakistan, gathered from new suspects in the Pearl case, is currently restricted to a few CID police investigators as the police have yet to officially acknowledge this major breakthrough in the Pearl case. Despite being arrested about a week ago by the CID, Fazal Karim -- a resident of Rahim Yar Khan and a father of five -- is yet to be formally arrested by the Sindh police, whose senior officials believe that the arrest of a new accused and an official confirmation about the discovery of the Pearl's body will derail the ongoing trial against Sheikh Omar and 10 other persons, earlier identified by the police as main accused in the kidnapping-c*m-murder of Daniel Pearl. Before the police had dug the shallow grave in the nursery garden of Gulzare Hijri on Friday, the same person is believed to have provided the police a video compact disc (VCD), the master print of Danny's video murder, and had informed the police that they would found Danny's body in 10 pieces. "There are scores of Arabs and their Pakistani loyalists who are desperate to blow themselves up to settle score with the Americans and other westerners," an official quoted Fazal Karim as saying. "These Arabs residing in various neighbourhoods in the outskirts of Karachi are on do-or-die missions," he added. Fazal told his investigators, "Our Arab friends hosted us in Afghanistan when we were on the run, now it's our turn to pay them back." Informed officials said that Fazal Karim had identified Lashkar-e- Jhangvi's Naeem Bukhari as the ring leader of the group that also included "three Yemeni-Baluch" who took part in Pearl's kidnapping, his murder and disposal of his body parts. Naeem Bukhari is wanted by police in Punjab and Karachi in more than a dozen cases of sectarian tension. Even Fazal Karim, official sources said, acknowledged Ahmed Saeed Omar Sheikh's role in planning Pearl's kidnapping which was initially planned to trade the Wall Street Journal reporter with an arrested Jihadi leader or with some unidentified Pakistani or Arab prisoners at the US military-run Guntanamo Bay prison in Cuba. Giving more specific information about the new terrorist threat in Karachi, Fazal is believed to have disclosed that the Airport hotel near Karachi airport, where the western military personnel of International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) were staying, had been selected by his group for a possible suicidal strike. Already, a senior Pakistani security official said: "Local and al-Qaeda footprints have been found" in every major strike against the so-called soft western targets in Pakistan this year: Pearl kidnapping and murder in January, grenade attack that killed two Americans and others in an Islamabad church in March and the car bomb that killed 16, including 12 French technicians, outside a Karachi hotel early this month. Informed diplomats in Islamabad termed "a watershed" and "very dangerous" the evidence that previously friendly groups have merged operationally. Al-Qaeda signatures, not seen previously in Pakistan, were starkly visible in the recent attacks apparently carried out principally by the Pakistanis: detailed planning, western targets and, in the two attacks, suicide bombers. Visiting French intelligence officials last week were quoted as anticipating another terrorist strike inside Pakistan in the space of 15 to 21 days. They were talking to the remaining members of the French defence contractors in Karachi. In the event of police's confirmation about Fazal Karim's arrest, he would have been interrogated by a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) of the ISI, IB, MI and police CID. Because of his alleged involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, he would have also been questioned by the FBI agents. Fazal Karim has stated that at least two groups, comprising local religious extremists, had pledged to strike against key personalities of Pakistan government at an opportune time this year, informed official said. After spending a few days at a CID-run detention facility, Fazal Karim has now been shifted to the police's branch famously known as the CIA -- the Karachi police wing officially assigned as the prosecutors in the Pearl case. While Fazal Karim's status with the Sindh police is still unclear, Inspector General of Sindh Police Syed Kamal Shah had officially stated on Friday that the Pearl's remains had been recovered on a tip-off from a "special informant". Many crime watchers in Karachi, though wondered why the "special informant" had not approached the US government which was offering $5 million and the relocation of the informant in the US for the same piece of information that led the Karachi police to the remains of Daniel Pearl..........</i> There are other stories available that detail the tremendous problems that Pakistan and Musharraf face. Here is an article at <i>Asia Tiimes</i> that is too long to post here. <A HREF="http://www.atimes.com/ind-pak/DE30Df02.html">Battle lines drawn around Musharraf</A> Mango
India set to launch 'small war' If true, this hopefully Pakistan will show restraint & avoid escalating this into something nobody wants to see.
The Indian leadership has gone quite far in this process and they are unlikley to pull back without Musharraf backing down first. Many countries have been reducing their embassy staffs in that area, so there is a grave concern that things will escalate. Mango
Maybe India should fire a cannon full of curry at Pakistan. The Pakistanis could strike back by dropping Nan bread and Tandoori paste all over India.
<A HREF="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Articleshow.asp?art_id=12688558">Rumsfeld has special forces offer for India</A> SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN <i> NEW DELHI: As part of a plan to de-escalate tension between India and Pakistan along the Line of Control, Washington is considering a proposal for the ambit of Indo-US military cooperation to be expanded to allow US special forces to operate in Jammu and Kashmir. According to sources, officials in both countries have been seriously evaluating this proposal, which is likely to be raised formally — along with other suggestions — when US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld meets Indian leaders here on Wednesday morning. If at all this radical proposal goes through, any American military deployment is likely to be fairly modest and will officially be described by both India and the US as part of the continuing war against al-Qaeda. There will be no reference to the LoC or to the need to verify on the ground the extent of Pakistani compliance with General Musharraf’s assurances on ending cross-border infiltration. However, the aim of the deployment would indeed be to monitor the LoC. As far as the Pakistani side of the LoC is concerned, the US is reported to be considering air-borne monitors tasked explicitly with observing cross-border movement. The US proposal to India comes in the wake of Prime Minister Vajpayee rejecting the idea of "international monitors" for the LoC and Pakistan reacting coolly to the Indian proposal for joint Indo-Pak patrolling. While both sides are evaluating the legal implications of US forces operating alongside the Indian military such as rules of engagement, immunity and sovereignty issues, officials in Washington and Delhi have concluded that it is only the war on al-Qaeda that can provide a politically safe rationale for the Vajpayee government to allow American troops in, given India’s traditional aversion to outside mediation in Kashmir. It is possible that recent official Indian claims of al-Qaeda being active in the Valley and of "Arab-looking terrorists" being shot dead by the security forces in J&K are part of the government’s efforts to prepare the ground for "joint Indo-US military action". In the days and weeks to come, say the sources, India could very well declare, "al-Qaeda and all the other bad guys are operating here and we invite the US to help us deal with them". A section of Indian officials has already started speaking of the possibility of the Kaluchak massacre and some other recent incidents in Jammu & Kashmir as being the handiwork of al-Qaeda. </i> Mango
