By Neelesh Misra Associated Press Writer Saturday, December 29, 2001; 1:45 PM
NEW DELHI, India -- India said Saturday it will do its best to avert war with Pakistan but will not pull back tens of thousands of troops massing at the border unless Pakistan stops backing Islamic militants.
Pakistan's president, meanwhile, offered to meet Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at a summit in Nepal next week to try to defuse the crisis - something India has refused. Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar warned that the stalemate could "trigger a chain of action and reaction that neither side desires. The propensity for such an outcome is very, very high."
With leaders of both nuclear-armed nations insisting they do not want war, Indian and Pakistani soldiers - only 100 yards apart in some places - fired at each other across the "Line of Control" dividing the disputed Kashmir region overnight, police and army officials said Saturday.
Eighteen Indian soldiers were killed and 12 wounded Friday when mines they were laying to deter Pakistani tanks exploded in the desert state of Rajasthan, army officials in the state said Saturday.
Fearing Pakistani airstrikes if a full-fledged conflict breaks out, local officials said they were preparing to camouflage the Taj Mahal, India's most-beloved monument. Local tailors were stitching more than 400 yards of khaki, black and green cloth, to be strung across the 17th century mausoleum in the northern city of Agra, officials said.
Vajpayee insisted Saturday that "no means shall be spared" in putting a stop to what he called "Pakistan-sponsored terrorism."
"I have said before and I would like to say it again: we do not want war, but a war in the form of cross-border terrorism has already been thrust on India," Vajpayee told senior officials of his Bharatiya Janata Party, according to Press Trust of India. "We shall do our utmost to avoid war with Pakistan."
India accuses Islamabad of waging a "proxy war" by supporting Islamic militants battling Indian rule in Kashmir. Tens of thousands have died in the 12-year Kashmir insurgency. The current crisis flared after a Dec. 13 attack by gunmen on India's Parliament that India blamed on militants and said Pakistan sponsored.
Pakistan denies any role in the Parliament attack, which left nine Indians and the five attackers dead, and says it gives only political support to militant groups. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since 1947, two of them over Kashmir.
Indian National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra said Saturday that India would not pull troops from the border until Pakistan takes "credible, firm, substantive and visible action" against militants operating in Kahmir. Until then, "India will maintain the heightened vigilance on the Line of Control and the international border," he said.
President Bush on Friday praised Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, saying he had arrested 50 militants and telling India it should "take note." An Indian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Nirupama Rao, said Saturday that India "will need to make our own assessment of the substance and nature of Pakistan's actions."
Musharraf said Friday he was willing to meet Vajpayee at the Jan. 4-6 gathering of South Asian leaders both are attending in Katmandu.
"If there is a willingness from the other side, there will be a willingness on my side," he said. "We do not want a war. We will never initiate a war unless it is thrust and initiated on us. We want peace in the region, and we want peace on the borders."
His foreign minister, Sattar, said Saturday that Pakistan does not want war of any kind, "nuclear or conventional." Amid the build up of forces at the border, there has been no indication that either side has readied its nuclear weapons.
Thousands of poor Indian villagers were fleeing their homes or were asked to evacuate in border areas, where shells and bullets have killed several civilians and their cattle and punched holes in houses. More than 20,000 villagers have fled their homes in Kashmir alone, civil administration officials said.
The Pakistani military has also asked those living on its side near the line dividing Kashmir to move away for their own protection.
"We can't go outside, as bullets and shells fired by India are hitting our houses. We can't move freely. We are frightened," said 45-year-old Tasleem Begum, who lives in the Pakistani border town of Chakothi.
In Agra, Indian officials said they would try to camouflage the Taj Mahal's four minarets and dome in case of war. "The Taj shines as far as 40 kilometers (24 miles) away, and is visible especially on moonlit nights. It could be a target," M.S. Juyal, tourism official in the northern Uttar Pradesh state, said.
Workers also have started construction of five bunkers to house armed guards around the monument, built by a Muslim ruler of India for his wife's tomb. A key Indian air force base is located in Agra.
On Tuesday, bus and train routes over the border are to be closed and flights halted, shutting land and air links between the two countries for the first time since their last war in 1971. As part of tit-for-tat sanctions, each country has also ordered half the other's embassy staff to leave.