freediver
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This is not a good sign. It would make an escalation of the problem inevitable. Hopefully it is just posturing on the part of Pakistan. Someone needs to bring the lunatics in the hills under control. It needs to come from both sides of the Pakistan/Afghan border. Those hills could end up being a bigger flashpoint than Israel. It was fine when they were happy to remain tribal hills that no-one can control, but the lawlessness will spread as the world gets smaller.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24731282-601,00.html
PAKISTAN is withdrawing troops from the fight against al-Qa'ida and the Taliban to redeploy them to its border with India as tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations escalate over the terrorist massacre in Mumbai.
As the clean-up began after terrorists killed at least 195 people, including two Australians, the only gunman captured provided testimony of the operation's links to a Pakistan-based militant group, intelligence sources said yesterday.
Ajmal Amir Kamal, 21, whose clean-shaven face has become an enduring image of the attacks after he was caught on a CCTV camera wearing a Versace T-shirt, was interrogated in a safe house in Mumbai.
He identified all the attackers as Pakistani citizens and acknowledged that they were trained by Lashkar-e-Toiba, a militant group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, reports said.
He confirmed the militants had come ashore in dinghies launched from a hijacked vessel whose crew had been killed, reports said.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari urged India not to "overreact" after Indian and US officials suggested the militants could have been from the Pakistan-based LET. The group was behind the deadly 2001 assault on the Indian parliament that pushed New Delhi and Islamabad to the brink of war.
"If something happens (amid the rising tensions with India), the war on terror cannot be our priority," a senior Pakistani official told a media briefing yesterday.
"We'll take everything from the western border (with Afghanistan - the main area of al-Qa'ida and Taliban activity). We won't leave anything there." Indian army sources said forces near Pakistan had been placed on a raised alert before a meeting that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called with security chiefs in New Delhi today. Mr Zardari was meeting Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, amid fears that the Mumbai crisis had the potential for a replay of the 2001 standoff.
Dr Singh cancelled a meeting with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in New Delhi over the weekend.
At the same time, Pakistan's army forced the country's civilian Government into an embarrassing about-face after it had earlier agreed to bow to Indian pressure and send the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency to New Delhi to help in the Mumbai investigation.
Mr Zardari and Mr Qureshi denied the assault was launched by terrorists trained and based in Pakistan. Conceding that the confrontation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours was extremely serious, Mr Qureshi called on India to ease the tension. "It is in Pakistan's interests and in India's interests to defuse the situation. Lowering of tension is essential.
"Finger-pointing or coming to hasty conclusions will play into the hands of the common enemy, that is, the terrorists."
India's Home Minister, the Government's most senior security official, last night quit the cabinet, becoming the first major scalp following the intelligence failure that led to the massacre.
The resignation of Shivraj Patil was followed by that of National Security Adviser MK Narayanan. Sources said other heads were expected to roll as the crisis within the Government deepened over what was the worst terrorist attack in India, and one which is being referred to as "India's 9/11".
Mr Patil, a powerful figure because of his closeness to India's supreme political leader, Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, had for months been under fire because of the growing number of terrorist attacks across the country. But until last night he had managed to cling to his position.
Public outrage over the Government's failure to get to grips with the issue of terrorism had, however, become too much for him to withstand.
Political analysts said that while the departure of Mr Patil would be widely welcomed, it was likely to do little to save the Government from severe criticism over its failures on the terrorism front - failures that many believe have the potential to drive it from office at elections due before May.
US President George W. Bush pledged full support to India as it investigated the attacks, saying the killers "will not have the final word". "The killers who struck this week are brutal and violent," Mr Bush said.
"But terror will not have the final word. The people of India are resilient. The people of India are strong. They have built a vibrant, multi-ethnic democracy. They can withstand this trial."
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