Sanjeev Miglani
JAMMU, Feb 5 (2000) – The head of India’s strife-torn Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir said on Saturday there could be a “limited war” with Pakistan if the Islamic nation continued to support a 10-year revolt in the region.
“If they don’t heed to our repeated requests to stop cross-border terrorism, next stage will be a limited war,” Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah told Reuters in an interview in Jammu, the state’s winter capital.
“India has talked of peace with Pakistan, but also demands they give up cross-border terrorism,” said Abdullah, who is at the centre of India’s effort to quell the rebellion.
New Delhi could be pushed into waging a war against Pakistan to bring a decisive end to the Kashmir insurgency that has killed or maimed thousands, said Abdullah, whose regional National Conference party is part of India’s federal coalition government.
“This time it (conflict) will solve the problem… India will have to take decisive action, destroy their military hardware,” the chief minister said.
New Delhi has consistently accused Pakistan of backing the revolt in largely-Hindu India’s only Moslem-majority state and says it has evidence of militants’ training camps in Pakistan.
Islamabad denies the charge but says it offers moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people in their struggle for self-determination.
Pakistan has planned a “Kashmir Solidarity Day” on Saturday with a government call for a nationwide shutdown of offices and businesses.
The archrivals have twice gone to war over Kashmir in just over five decades, and last summer stood on the brink of another conflict when hundreds of armed men intruded into India’s side of Kashmir near the military control line with Pakistan.
New Delhi launched its biggest air and ground offensive in the Kargil sector of Kashmir to oust the intruders, who India said were primarily Pakistani troops.
Islamabad denied involvement, but agreed under international diplomatic pressure to persuade the men to withdraw.
“This time the conflict will be more extensive,” Abdullah said, insisting that a nuclear-armed Pakistan would not deter a much larger and more powerful India.
“I wonder if they can use nuclear weapons, they will be destroyed, there will not be anything left of them,” he said.
TIT-FOR-TAT NUCLEAR TESTS
India and Pakistan carried out a series of tit-for-tat nuclear tests in May 1998 and declared themselves nuclear weapon states.
Abdullah said a military coup in Pakistan following that country’s retreat from Kargil had exacerbated his problem in Kashmir.
“The wound of Kargil continues to bleed Pakistan…they feel by doing these “fedayeen” (suicide) attacks they can recover. The military take-over in Pakistan has also increased our problem.”
Militants have in recent months launched a series of daring attacks on Indian army and paramilitary camps across the Kashmir valley, including the army headquarters in Srinagar, the state’s summer capital.
The hijacking of an Indian Airlines jet last December which ended in an exchange of militants for hostages had bolstered enemy confidence levels, Abdullah said. “There is a new confidence in the terrorists, hijacking has a fall-out.”
New Delhi was on New Year’s Eve forced to release three militants from Kashmiri prisons after hijackers threatened to kill 155 hostages on board the jet they had diverted to southern Afghanistan during a flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi.
