topic by
John Calvin
5/19/2002 (21:02) |
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New Delhi Expels Pakistan Ambassador
Sunday, May 19, 2002
NEW DELHI, India (AP) - India expelled Pakistan's ambassador Saturday as firing between the two nuclear-armed neighbors escalated in the disputed Kashmir region, forcing thousands of villagers to flee. Two people were killed as both sides fired at each other across the frontier.
The diplomatic move was announced after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee met Saturday with top Cabinet ministers, military and intelligence chiefs to decide India's response to a militant attack in Kashmir that killed 34 people on Tuesday. The Himalayan region has been at the root of two of the three wars fought by India and Pakistan.
India withdrew its ambassador from Pakistan in December, after a militant attack on the Parliament in New Delhi. As tensions rose, both countries slashed their diplomatic staffs, halted overflight rights for airplanes and ended train service.
Pakistan's ambassador had remained in New Delhi, although the Indian government refused to meet with him. India's External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said Saturday that since New Delhi no longer had an ambassador in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, the Pakistani ambassador would have to leave.
``For the sake of parity of representation between the two countries,'' he told reporters, ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi would be brought back to Islamabad.
Qazi, who has held the position for five years, has been given one week to return to Islamabad.
A spokesman for Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said the government was disappointed. Qazi was to be recalled.
``Actions like these add to tension, whereas efforts should be made to reduce tension and Pakistan, despite this action of India, which has disappointed us, will continue to strive to resolve all issues with India through peaceful negotiations and through peaceful means,'' Aziz Ahmad Khan said in an interview Saturday with the state-run Pakistan Television.
The Indian military gave Vajpayee a briefing Saturday on its strengths and weaknesses and what it believes Pakistan's military situation is, said an officer, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The United States and other allies have voiced concerns recently that a fourth war between the longtime rivals could be imminent.
On Saturday, a State Department spokeswoman in Washington said officials were aware of the situation involving Pakistan's ambassador, but had no comment at this time.
India accuses Pakistan of working with the Muslim militants, who are based on its side of the border. Islamabad has denied allegations that it was involved in the militant attacks on India. However, it has said it supports the goals of the rebels who have been fighting since 1989 for Kashmir's independence from India or merger with Pakistan. More than 60,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the insurgency.
Fighting intensified on the border Friday and increased through the night into Saturday morning, witnesses said. On Friday, a bomb left on a motor scooter exploded in a busy shopping area in Srinagar, in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, killing two people and injuring 17, police said.
In Indian villages along the frontier, the carcasses of animals lay in the summer heat in abandoned villages, their stench mixing with the smell of used ammunition.
``It's a war,'' said Bishamber Dass, one of 10,000 people who fled their homes Friday night and was sheltering in a makeshift camp.
Indian military officials said four soldiers had been wounded, while three civilians had been killed and seven wounded in the most intense cross-border firing this year.
Pakistani military said Saturday that two people were killed and 15 wounded - including two children - when Indian soldiers fired across the disputed border.
``The Indian army began intense shelling at 6:30 a.m. in different (areas) ... with medium and field artillery, mortars and direct firing of weapons causing the destruction of houses owned by civilians,'' said a Pakistan army statement.
The Indian minister, Singh, said Saturday that there had been heavy fighting along the border, with both sides using heavy weaponry to target each other.
``There was a fire assault from across the border in the Rajouri sector yesterday, in retaliation for which very heavy damage has been inflicted on the Pakistani side,'' he said.
Indian and Pakistani soldiers, rivals since a bloody partition divided the subcontinent upon its independence from Britain in 1947, routinely fire at each other across the frontier.
Tension escalated following the attack on India's Parliament and both sides deployed hundreds of thousands of troops, tanks and heavy guns in the region.
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