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Pakistan moves troops toward Indian border
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-27 00:04 News of the buildup comes as even Indian officials say militant activity in Indian Kashmir has fallen to its lowest levels since an anti-India militant movement began there in 1989.
The number of militant attacks fell 40 percent from 2007-2008, reaching 709 this year from roughly 1,100 last year, Kuldeep Khoda, a senior police official, said in a statement. Police say there are 850 militants fighting in the region, including followers of Lashkar-e-Taiba. Indian authorities say the decrease in attacks is the result of an experienced security apparatus that has struck at the heart of many militant groups, Khoda said Indian forces have killed about 350 militants this year, including some top-ranking commanders. But they also say that the militants have scaled back their attacks as a large public protest movement gained momentum since last summer. The neighbors have said they want to avoid military conflict this time around, but Pakistan has promised to respond aggressively if India uses force, an option the Indian government has not ruled out. "We will not take any action on our own," Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters Friday. "There will be no aggression from our side." Pakistan has deployed more than 100,000 soldiers in Waziristan and other northwestern regions to fight Islamic militants blamed for surging violence against Western troops in Afghanistan as well as suicide attacks in Pakistan. Security officials have previously said the country would be forced to withdraw troops from the Afghan border if tensions with India, whose army is twice as large, escalated. "This is a serious blow to the war on terror in the sense that the whole focus is now shifting toward the eastern border," said Masood. "It will give more leeway to the militants and increased space to operate." The United States wants Pakistan to stay focused on the fight against militants in the border region, where Osama bin Laden and other top al-Qaida leaders are believed to be hiding.
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