May 23, 2002 5 min read

KUPWARA, India (AP) – India warned rival Pakistan on Wednesday that it’s not bluffing about a “decisive battle” against terrorism and told its soldiers on the tense Kashmir border to be ready for sacrifice. Army officers responded by declaring the troops were primed for war and prepared to die, and India’s navy moved five warships nearer to Pakistani waters as fears of war between the nuclear-armed rivals grew.

Cross-border shelling has killed dozens in the past week in divided Kashmir, which both nations claim in its entirety. India and Pakistan have fought two wars over the Himalayan region.

In Islamabad, Pakistan’s top military leaders and Cabinet issued a statement endorsing efforts to resolve the dispute through negotiations, but warned that Pakistan was ready “to meet any contingency resolutely and with full force.”

“The meeting also called on the international community to impress upon India the dangers inherent in the explosive situation created as a result of Indian belligerence and obduracy,” the statement said.

India says it is being forced to fight a proxy war with Pakistan, which it accuses of training and arming Islamic militants who have been fighting for Kashmir’s independence or merger with Muslim Pakistan for 12 years. The militants have staged deadly attacks inside mostly Hindu India.

Islamabad says it has no control over the militants and provides them only moral, not material, support. In September, Pakistan joined the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

In India, hundreds of soldiers with mine detectors and sniffer dogs patrolled the roads around the army base where Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee addressed more than 600 troops on the cease-fire line dividing Kashmir.

Vajpayee asked the soldiers “to be ready for sacrifice. Your goal should be victory. It’s time to fight a decisive battle.”

In Washington, the State Department appealed for an end to shelling in Kashmir and urged Pakistan to curb the influx of Islamic militants into the contested area. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said it was “a worrisome situation.”

Secretary of State Colin Powell is sending his deputy, Richard Armitage, to the region to confer with leaders in both nations.

The Indian navy said Wednesday it had moved five warships from the Bay of Bengal to the waters off Bombay, in the Arabian Sea. The ships are about 500 miles from Karachi, Pakistan.

“The deployment of the ships is to increase the operational preparedness of the western sea force,” said navy Cmdr. Rahul Gupta.

Vajpayee, meanwhile, said Pakistan should know that India is prepared for war.

“Whether our neighbor gets that signal or not, whether the world keeps record of that or not, we will write a new chapter of victory,” he said. “Our neighbor has found a new way of fighting, through a proxy war.”

Vajpayee said the attack last week on an army camp on the outskirts of Jammu, the winter capital of India’s Jammu-Kashmir state, by suspected Islamic militants posed a new challenge. The assault killed 34 people – mostly soldiers’ wives and children.

India blamed Pakistan and Islamic militants based there for the attack, expelled the Pakistani ambassador, and reorganized maritime and ground forces under the military. An additional 3,000 soldiers were sent to the frontier Tuesday.

“The challenge has been thrown at India and we accept it,” he told the soldiers.

Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes said the soldiers were ready for war. “Everywhere I go, soldiers ask me, “When will we get marching orders?”‘ he said.

Gen. V.G. Patankar, the officer who commands the troops in Kashmir, said: “We are ready to die.”

“We are resolved to wage war,” he added.

In Islamabad, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s Cabinet and the National Security Council met Wednesday and reaffirmed Pakistan’s diplomatic and moral support for militants fighting in Kashmir, but said it would not let Pakistani territory be used as a base for terrorists.

“No organization in Pakistan will be allowed to indulge in terrorism in the name of Kashmir,” the statement said.

Pakistan said at least 20 Pakistani civilians had been killed and more than 70 injured in six days of cross-border shelling.

The tough talk in the last week is typical of the longtime enemies who often threaten war.

However, the 1 million troops dispatched by both countries to their border is the biggest military buildup since their last war in 1971. They have already fought wars in 1948 and 1965 over Kashmir.

Still, many analysts believe that with the U.S. military presence in neighboring Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Washington’s efforts to defuse tensions, war may not be imminent.

“In the immediate future, we are not going to launch an operation,” said J.N. Dixit, former foreign secretary and ambassador to Pakistan.

Dixit said he expected the government to wait for the visits of the State Department’s Armitage and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw later this month before taking a final decision on a course of action.

Straw announced Wednesday that Britain would recall some of its diplomats and their families from Pakistan because of security concerns. The Foreign Office said his announcement was not directly linked to any threat of war between India and Pakistan.