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MESSAGE BOARD: India-Pakistan relations

June 17, 1999
Web posted at: 4:24 a.m. EDT (0824 GMT)

In this story: 'Shelling continues unabated' U.S. demand spurned RELATED STORIES, SITES

NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) -- India pressed its attacks on what it says are Pakistani-backed infiltrators on its side of divided Kashmir on Thursday and put its navy on alert in the Arabian Sea.

"Operations are in progress," a senior army official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. Air force officials could not be reached to confirm if Indian warplanes also were involved in flushing out guerrillas dug into the icy heights.

Weeks of fighting in Kashmir have pushed tensions between India and Pakistan to their highest levels in nearly 30 years and prompted increasing international calls on the nuclear-capable rivals to show restraint.

India had put its navy on alert to ensure the crisis did not spill over to the Arabian Sea, a navy spokesman said.

"State of preparedness doesn't mean an offensive. But it does mean we are ready in all respects...," the spokesman told Reuters.

Naval officials said an annual summertime exercise had been shifted this year to the Arabian Sea from the usual site on the Bay of Bengal in view of the conflict. It was also a response to a build-up since June 11 on the Pakistan side.

An admiral involved in the operations declined to give details on how far apart the two navies were.

"Unlike on land we have no borders at sea. The whole concept of having a navy is having mobility. We can be here today and can easily be 400 miles away tomorrow," he told Reuters.

Defense officials said the two arch-foes, who have fought two wars over Kashmir since their independence from Britain in 1947, sustained cross-border shelling on Thursday across a wide swath of the Himalayan region.

"The shelling continued unabated in Batalik, Kargil, Kaksar, Drass and Mushkoh valley," a defense official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters in Jammu, the winter capital of India's Jammu and Kashmir state.

The official said there were reports of mortar firing from other parts of the Line of Control (LOC) including Kanzalwan, Keran, Kupwara, Poonch and Naushera sectors.

Defense officials said in Jammu that the army had managed to send in 400 trucks laden with supplies for villagers in the Kargil area hit by shelling since Wednesday. The Srinagar-Leh highway faced a threat from rebels occupying vantage points.

U.S. President Bill Clinton urged Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday to withdraw the militants, despite Pakistan's insistence that it only gives moral support and not military aid to some groups.

An alliance of guerrillas fighting Indian rule in Kashmir on Wednesday spurned the U.S. demand for their pullout.

"We will not budge an inch from the territory we have captured in Kargil (area) under any external pressure," Muthidda Jihad Council alliance chief Syed Salahuddin told Reuters in Muzaffarabad.

India hopes other major world leaders will echo Clinton's calls at a meeting of Group of Eight nations in Cologne at the weekend, and expects the group could even issue a statement on Kashmir, the Times of India reported.

Indian officials say 600 to 700 infiltrators are still holed up in high ridges on its side of the Line of Control. India says 297 fighters have been killed on the Pakistani side since last month while India has suffered 104 dead.

Talks between Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers last week failed to defuse tensions. Both countries are said to be wooing Chinese support, with their foreign ministers making visits to Beijing this month.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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