Troops, Tensions Grow in Kashmir

Bush administration officials watched warily Tuesday as nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan moved more combat troops and missiles closer to their shared border and escalated their war of words.

But U.S. officials said the crisis might be defused in coming days because Pakistan appears to have launched a crackdown against several Islamic militant groups, two of which India blames for the attempted suicide bombing of the Parliament in New Delhi two weeks ago.

That attack, which left 14 people dead, led to the latest flare-up of tensions. On Tuesday, U.S. officials confirmed reports from the region that India has shifted short-range missiles, fighter jets and fresh troops closer to Pakistan in recent days and has urged Indian citizens in some border areas to evacuate.

Pakistan has reinforced military emplacements on its eastern border, U.S. officials said, and has moved medium-range missile batteries to five areas along the so-called Line of Control that separates the two neighbors in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

U.S. officials fear the crisis could detract from the American-led search for Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda allies in Afghanistan and western Pakistan--or worse, spin out of control and lead to a shooting war or nuclear exchange.

But a senior U.S. official who is monitoring intelligence reports from the area said Tuesday that war did not appear imminent.

“I think we would see a lot more going on if major hostilities were about to break out,” he said.

The official, who asked not to be identified as a matter of policy, said the latest mobilization of troops and equipment is “ratcheting up the situation” and has led to a “heightened sense of worry” in Washington.

India and Pakistan have enough troops near the border that an attack “is possible at any time,” the official warned. “They don’t have to wait for further reinforcements. Something could always spark it.”

In particular, he said, U.S. officials are concerned that Pakistan has moved medium-range missile batteries to the sites along the Line of Control. He identified them as Poonch, Balakote, Kerni, Akhmoor-Chickenneck and Unshera.

But he said U.S. intelligence analysts believe that both countries are moving their reinforcements at a sufficiently slow pace to create time for ongoing diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis.

“If they continue preparations at this rate, it could go on for another week or two,” he said.

The border buildup began after a squad of suicide attackers tried to storm the Indian Parliament in New Delhi on Dec. 13. The five attackers and nine other people were killed in a bombing and shootout outside the Parliament building.

India blamed the Pakistan-based Kashmiri separatist groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed for the attack and demanded that Pakistan arrest their leaders and shut down their operations.

Pakistan initially refused, demanding that India prove the groups were involved before it moved against them.

On Thursday, President Bush condemned the attack on Parliament. “The legislature of the world’s largest democracy, a nation founded on the principles of freedom of speech, freedom of worship, was ruthlessly attacked,” he said.

On Friday, New Delhi recalled its ambassador to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, for the first time in 30 years. It also ordered the expulsion of a Pakistani diplomat.

The stalemate may have been broken this week, however, amid signs that Pakistan has begun to move against several militant Islamic groups that have long been allowed to raise money, recruit volunteers and operate openly in Pakistan.

In the most significant step, Pakistani officials detained Mulana Masood Azhar, the leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed, at his house in Punjab province Tuesday, according to a government spokesman.

Azhar is an Islamic cleric who India says planned the Parliament attack. He was freed from an Indian prison in 1999 in exchange for a planeload of hijacked passengers and is one of India’s most wanted men.

“We think that will help,” said the U.S. official.

The move came a day after Lashkar-e-Taiba announced that it had closed its office in Islamabad and will operate only in Kashmir. Jaish-e-Mohammed and another militant group, Harkat Moujahedeen, closed their Pakistani offices shortly after Sept. 11.

Pakistani security agencies have also ordered the groups to remove their billboards, banners and flags from major cities and to stop soliciting donations.

In addition, Pakistan’s central bank this week ordered all banks to freeze accounts of Lashkar-e-Taiba, or LET, and another group, Ummah Tameer-e-Nau, or UTN, which was founded by the former director for nuclear power at Pakistan’s Atomic Energy Commission.

The White House has accused UTN, a nongovernmental organization that claims to serve the needy in Afghanistan, of providing Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network with information on nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction. On Thursday, Bush added UTN to a list of financial organizations that support terrorism.

Pakistan’s move to freeze the groups’ assets may be mostly symbolic, however. LET officials said the group has no Pakistani bank accounts. UTN also is believed to raise funds from outside Pakistan.

India and Pakistan have fought two bitter wars over Kashmir, a mostly Muslim region that is claimed by both nations but is divided between them. Tens of thousands of people have died in a long-running insurgency in the Indian-controlled portion, and cross-border skirmishes on the rugged peaks and in the deep gorges are not unusual.

In the current crisis, six Indian soldiers, and at least five Pakistanis, have been reported killed over the last week as troops have traded mortar, machine gun and small-arms fire. Indian officials say several thousand civilians have fled the border area.

Leaders in both countries said Tuesday that they were prepared for another war but hoped to avoid it.

“We do not want war, but war is being thrust on us, and we will have to face it,” Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee told a gathering at his residence in New Delhi.

In Islamabad, Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, said his nation’s armed forces “are fully prepared and capable of defeating all challenges.”

Musharraf also used a speech marking the 125th birthday of the nation’s founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, to criticize Muslim extremists for tarnishing Islam’s image by promoting hatred, according to wire service reports.

Speaking outside Jinnah’s mausoleum in the coastal city of Karachi, Musharraf reminded the nation of Jinnah’s moderate views and called on his countrymen to reject extremism.

“We have undermined Islam to a level that people of the world associate it with illiteracy, backwardness, intolerance,” Musharraf said.

“Leave aside tolerating other religions,” he said. “We refuse to accommodate views of various sects in our own religion.”

The White House declined to comment on the latest developments. A State Department spokesman, Frederick Jones, said the department had nothing to add to a statement issued Friday by chief spokesman Richard Boucher.

“We urge both sides, and are urging both sides, to avoid any further escalation of tension,” Boucher said then. “As we have always said, we believe it important for India and Pakistan to avoid fighting each other. At this point they have avoided fighting each other. We remain heavily engaged in this process, and we are trying to work with each of them.”

Pakistan has been a crucial Washington ally in the Afghan war, and India was quick to offer support after the Sept. 11 attacks.

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Times staff writer Eric Slater in Islamabad contributed to this report.