Tensions between India and Pakistan rose over the weekend as Pakistan said it was redeploying an unspecified number of troops from the fight against Islamic militants in the country's northwest, a move decried by Indian officials as needlessly provocative.
Pakistani officials wouldn't say where the troops were headed nor provide estimates of how many soldiers were on the move. But a Pakistani military spokesman suggested they will be redeployed to face Indian forces on the country's eastern border, calling the troop movements and the restriction of leave "defensive and precautionary steps" prompted by souring relations with India.
Another Pakistani security official said some of the country's soldiers were being moved from northwestern regions where there were no Islamic militants to fight, or where both sides were snowed in.
Both officials insisted the redeployment was modest and won't affect Pakistan's campaign against the Taliban and al Qaeda, which control wide swaths of territory along Pakistan's northwestern border with Afghanistan.
Pakistan's government insisted it did not want war with India and was committed to fighting terrorism from Taliban and al Qaeda forces using Pakistan as a refuge from the war in Afghanistan or from like-minded Pakistani Islamic insurgents. "We ourselves have accepted that we have a cancer," said Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in a televised speech Saturday. "They are forcing their agenda on us."
In the speech, Mr. Zardari made repeated references to his late wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was killed a year ago Sunday in a suicide bomb attack blamed on Pakistani militants.
But with tensions between India and Pakistan high in the weeks since terrorists armed with guns and grenades rampaged through Mumbai, leaving 171 people dead, Pakistani officials said Friday that the military was sharply curtailing leave for its soldiers and moving some away from the northwest, where they are battling Taliban and al Qaeda fighters.
Diplomats and political analysts said Pakistan's moves appeared intended to warn India from attempting any kind of retaliatory strike against militant targets inside Pakistan -- and not a mobilization for war between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
U.S. officials appealed for calm and said Washington was discussing the reported troop movements with American embassies in South Asia.
"We hope that both sides will avoid taking steps that will unnecessarily raise tensions during these already tense times," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
In the weeks since the three-day terrorist siege in Mumbai, which New Delhi and Washington blame on gunmen linked to a Pakistani Islamic militant group, senior U.S. officials have visited Pakistan and India in an effort to cool the rising tensions, and to keep Pakistan focused on battling the Taliban and al Qaeda.
Islamabad has more than 100,000 soldiers committed to that fight. In the days immediately following the Mumbai attack, it threatened to pull them all back toward India if New Delhi made aggressive moves against Pakistan. U.S. officials say any pullback could be disastrous for the fight against Islamic militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
In India, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Saturday it was unfortunate that a "sort of war hysteria" has been created in Pakistan.
"I appeal to Pakistan and Pakistani leaders: do not unnecessarily try to create tension," he was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency. "Do not try to deflect the issue. A problem has to be tackled face to face
His comments came a day after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met with the nation's military commanders to review the security situation, his office said. An Indian defense ministry spokesman, Sitanshu Kar, said New Delhi wasn't canceling leave for its solders and hadn't repositioned any of its forces.
Nonetheless, India advised its citizens against visiting Pakistan following Pakistani media reports that an Indian national had been arrested in connection with a bomb blast that killed one person in the city of Lahore this week. Pakistani officials haven't confirmed the reports.
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Topic: Tensions Rise as Pakistan Moves to Redeploy Troops (Read 768 times)