June 19, 1999
Web posted at: 4:44 p.m. EDT (2044 GMT)

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NEW DELHI, India (CNN) - As India pressed ahead with air and ground troop attacks to drive out what it calls Pakistan-backed infiltrators in the icy mountains of Kashmir, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said on Saturday the conflict would be resolved between New Delhi and Islamabad.

"There is no need for any mediation. It is a bilateral issue and we will resolve it," the Press Trust of India quoted Vajpayee as saying.

Tensions continued to rise, as anti-India protesters burned an effigy of Vajpayee in Karachi, and troops in Pakistan trained for the possibility of involvement in the conflict with India.

India expects some expression of diplomatic support from Western nations at a Group of Eight summit this weekend after U.S. President Bill Clinton urged Pakistan to withdraw militants fighting on the Indian side of the ceasefire line that divides Kashmir between the two neighbors.

New Delhi says the guerrillas are mainly Pakistanis, while Islamabad says they are local "freedom fighters" in a separatist revolt that has racked Indian-administered Kashmir since 1990.

A senior army official in Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir state, said troops were locked in intense combat to recapture a strategic peak overlooking a key highway.

"In a planned manner our boys are making an effort to recapture a strategic peak, 5140, in the Drass area overlooking the national highway, and its recovery will make our operations complete in this particular sub-sector" the official said.

India and Pakistan had exchanged heavy artillery fire in the Kargil sector along the ceasefire line, he said.

"During the night, the shelling was comparatively less in these areas due to cold and it started picking up again since the morning," the official said.

Army officials say they are targeting bases on Pakistan's side of the ceasefire line which are used to maintain supplies to the infiltrators, but stress that they have no intention of crossing the ceasefire line.

The conflict has pushed the two nuclear-capable states to their worst confrontation in nearly 30 years, although India said on Friday it saw no threat of a war with its arch-foe. The neighbors have fought two wars over Kashmir since 1947.

Pakistan says it has asked G8 nations to help resolve the standoff, and Bangladesh has offered to mediate between India and Pakistan.

A powerful Islamic militant group warned Pakistan's prime minister on Friday not to bow to international pressure on Kashmir because mujahideen, or holy warriors, would not spare him.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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