Pakistan Visited by Powell, Shelled by India Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Monday October 15 3:28 PM ET (via yahoo) India, Pakistan Exchange Fire as Powell Visits By Rahul Sharma/Raja Asghar NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - India and Pakistan exchanged fire across the border in disputed Kashmir Monday as the U.S. secretary of state began a swing through the region, prompting Washington to ask the nuclear rivals `to stand down.'' A senior Indian army official said troops had launched heavy mortar bomb fire at Pakistani posts across the line of control in Kashmir to try to stop cross-border infiltration. `We have engaged posts which have actively abetted, facilitated and were involved in assisting the trans-border terrorist movement into India,'' Brigadier P.C. Das told Reuters by telephone from Jammu, the winter capital of the state. Das said the decision to fire at the Pakistani posts was taken after 11 militants were killed trying to cross the border into the Indian-controlled sector Sunday. Pakistan said the `unprovoked firing'' by India had killed one woman and wounded 25 people in two sectors of the Himalayan region it controls. The firing came on the day when Secretary of State Colin Powell began a swing through Pakistan and India for talks on Afghanistan and the simmering dispute over Kashmir. Official Indian sources told Reuters that reports of firing were `baseless'' and an attempt to `sully the atmosphere on the eve of the Secretary of States' visit.'' Powell arrived in Pakistan Monday and was due to visit New Delhi Tuesday for talks with Indian officials. BUSH ASKS INDIA, PAKISTAN TO STAND DOWN The firing also prompted President Bush to call upon the regional rivals `to stand down.'' `...I think it is very important that India and Pakistan stand down during our activities in Afghanistan and, for that matter, forever,'' Bush said. `As you noted, our secretary of state is in the region,'' he told reporters. `One reason he's there is to talk to both sides about making sure that...if there are tensions -- and obviously there are -- that they can be reduced.'' Das said Pakistani forces had retaliated to the Indian mortar fire, which had come from the state's Poonch and Jammu districts. He said there was no damage on the Indian side. Pakistan military spokesman Major-General Rashid Qureshi told Reuters in Islamabad that Pakistani troops returned fire at Pokhnia near the Pakistani district of Sialkot and along the line of control in the Rawalkot sector. The Indian and Pakistani accounts referred to places across the border from one another. Another Pakistan army spokesman said the Pakistani army troops and paramilitary rangers had caused `considerable damage'' on the Indian side. `They (the Indian side) started the firing,'' he said. `They resorted to unprovoked and indiscriminate firing, once again targeting civilians.'' FIRING TO RAISE REGIONAL TENSION The violence is expected to raise tension between the nuclear rivals at a time when the United States is anxious to avoid any problems in disputed Kashmir that might jeopardize its action against Afghanistan. Earlier in the day George Fernandes was reinstated as Indian defense minister, a move analysts said may have been a response to concern in the government that New Delhi was falling in too easily with Washington and London's wishes in the attack crisis. Many in the ruling nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party fear that Washington, which has joined hands with Pakistan to target Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, is paying only lip service to Indian concern about `cross-border terrorism'' in Kashmir. Analysts expected Fernandes to tackle the insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir with new vigor. U.S. officials in Washington have expressed concern that India might use the global war on terrorism to cross the Kashmir cease-fire line and smash what New Delhi says are militant camps in the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. Such fears grew after a Pakistan-based militant group killed 38 people in a suicide attack outside the Indian Kashmir legislature earlier this month. The incident led to some strident calls in India to pursue militant groups in Pakistan. A militant group in Kashmir warned the Indian army afresh of suicide attacks following the cross-border exchange of fire. `We have ordered our mujahideen to launch suicide attacks on Indian army positions. And I am sure our mujahideen will teach them a lesson,'' said Abu Osama, spokesman of Lashkar-e-Taiba. India accuses Pakistan of fomenting violence in the state, where over 30,000 people have been killed in the 12-year-old rebellion against Indian rule. Pakistan says it provides only moral and diplomatic support to the `freedom fighters.'' * Monday October 15 2:35 PM ET (via Yahoo) India Says It Shelled Pakistan By BINOO JOSHI, Associated Press Writer JAMMU, India (AP) - A senior army official said Indian forces shelled Pakistani military posts across the cease-fire line Monday in Kashmir, destroying nearly a dozen posts in the heaviest fighting along the disputed border in 10 months. Pakistan said a woman was killed and 25 people injured in the assault. `We have fired heavily on Pakistani positions,'' Indian Brig. P.C. Das told The Associated Press. Speaking from the army base in Nagrota, near Jammu-Kashmir's winter capital of Jammu, Das said the shelling occurred in the frontier areas of Akhnoor and Mendar. Das said Indian forces fired artillery, rockets, mortars, grenade launchers and machine guns during the operation. A statement from the Army Media Center said the shelling had caused `widespread destruction.'' `The Indian army today launched successful, punitive operations against the Pakistani army's repeated involvement in abetting terrorist activities,'' the statement said. In Islamabad, a Pakistani army spokesman said Indian forces were shelling Pakistani positions in the Phuklian sector, 18 miles from the border city of Sialkot, injuring one woman and 25 others. The spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, denied Indian claims that they destroyed 11 Pakistani posts. He accused India of targeting civilians. The two sides were still trading artillery fire in the Rawalakot sector, 100 miles south of Muzaffarabad, he said. Earlier, a Pakistani general officer at the army headquarters in Rawalpindi, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he checked all the reports and `no such incident happened.'' In Washington, President Bush said he was looking into the report. `I think it is very important that India and Pakistan stand down during our activities in Afghanistan, for that matter forever,'' Bush said. The Indian offensive came while Secretary of State Colin Powell was in Pakistan to discuss issues related to Kashmir and the U.S.-led attack on the Taliban. Powell is scheduled to arrive in India's capital, New Delhi, on Tuesday evening. `We have started punitive action. This follows a conscious decision,'' said Das, the brigadier-general staff of the Indian army's 16th corps. `This is part of the proactive approach adopted by Indian Army.'' He added, `We have completely destroyed their posts.'' Das said Pakistani soldiers had sneaked into Indian territory in Akhnoor on Monday night and damaged three power transformers. Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had hinted last week that India would take tough action to stem violence by Pakistan-based Islamic insurgents who have fought since 1989 to separate Kashmir from India. The fighting has killed at least 30,000 people. The Indian claim threatened to escalate tensions between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors. Their territorial dispute in Kashmir has led to two of the three wars India and Pakistan have fought in five decades. India says Pakistan arms, trains and funds Islamic militants based in Pakistan who carry out terrorist attacks and strikes on Indian military bases in the Indian-ruled port of Kashmir. Pakistan calls them `freedom fighters,'' says it has no control over their movement cross the border, and that it provides only moral, not material aid. Das said a total of 11 Pakistani posts had been demolished in the two areas, along the Line of Control, the 1972 cease-fire line that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Das said details of Pakistani casualties were not known. He said such attacks could be launched again. `This action would be taken in future also if they make any attempt to push in infiltrators or plant improvised explosive devices in our territory,'' Das said. Late last month, five Islamic guerrillas and two soldiers died in fighting near the village of Mendar, 135 miles northwest of Jammu, the army said. Militants in Kashmir have stepped up their attacks since India and Pakistan failed to agree on a common approach to the Kashmir issue when their leaders held summit talks in July. * Monday October 15 2:38 PM ET (via Yahoo) Powell Opens Visit to Pakistan By GEORGE GEDDA, Associated Press Writer ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Pakistan Monday just as tensions with India flared up again over Kashmir. President Bush worried that fighting there `could create issues'' for the U.S.-led war next door in Afghanistan. `It is very important that India and Pakistan stand down during our activities in Afghanistan and, for that matter, forever,'' Bush said back in Washington after India shelled Pakistani posts near the cease-fire line. Powell, who undertook his trip under unusually tight security, will meet with President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday to discuss reopening military ties and try to keep the Kashmir issue from complicating the U.S. anti-terror campaign in the region. On Wednesday, Powell travels to India for similar talks with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Bush said his secretary of state's mission was `to talk to both sides about making sure that if there are tensions - and obviously there are - that they be reduced.'' `We are mindful that activities around Kashmir could create issues in that part of the region, particularly as we're conducting our operations in Afghanistan,'' Bush said after meeting in the Oval Office with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice told reporters that more than a week ago, as the president got ready to launch the airstrikes on Afghanistan, she, Bush and Powell made a flurry of phone calls to top officials in India and Pakistan to emphasize the importance of `not having a flare-up'' over Kashmir. `There's a lot of diplomatic infrastructure in place to try to damp this down,'' Rice said. Musharraf, in an interview with USA Today and CBS Radio, said he would recommend to Powell that the United States first target its military operation on taking out Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban leader, before going after accused terrorist Osama bin Laden. `It could be over in one day if you take out Mullah Omar and his leadership. Once you've done that, the campaign is over,'' Musharraf said. It was just after dark when Powell and his party landed at a military airport adjacent to Islamabad's main commercial airport. To limit visibility of the aircraft, all shades were drawn several minutes before touchdown. Earlier Monday, thousands of shops around the country were shuttered in response to a general strike call by Muslim leaders opposed to Pakistan's support for U.S. airstrikes against targets in Afghanistan. As a front-line state, Pakistan's support for U.S. anti-terrorism goals in Afghanistan is considered crucial. En route here, Powell praised Musharraf for political courage in giving the United States landing rights at air bases to facilitate U.S. military activities across the border. He praised India's cooperation as well. `I'm very pleased that the two nations are aligned with us in the campaign against terrorism, aligned with the entire civilized world,'' Powell told reporters. But U.S. officials recognize that neither country will be much help if their energies are sapped by a confrontation over Kashmir, a dispute that has gone unresolved for more than 50 years. The danger of that fight was emphasized anew Monday. India's army announced it had fired on and destroyed 11 Pakistani military posts across a disputed cease-fire line in Kashmir. The reported shelling broke a 10-month calm along the border. The trip is Powell's first abroad since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The State Department withheld details of Powell's arrival time and his activities here, recognizing the fierce opposition of many Pakistanis to their government's cooperation with the United States in efforts to hunt down Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida organization in Afghanistan. U.S. officials said Pakistani authorities were going to great lengths to ensure Powell's safety. Powell told reporters he will confer with Musharraf and Vajpayee on the future of Afghanistan, Pakistan's western neighbor, where U.S. jets have been targeting both the bin Laden and Taliban infrastructures since Oct. 7. Indicating he believes the demise of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan may be just a matter of time, Powell said he sees a key role for the United Nations in the transition. `Clearly the United Nations will be playing a leading role. No one government will be able to handle it,'' he said, adding that the best hope for a future stability is a broad-based government. Powell said Richard Haass, director of the State Department's office of policy planning, will be the U.S. point man for the transition process. Powell said he doubts the radical Islamic Taliban movement will play a role in a future government because of what he described as its dismal performance over the past five years. As for military ties with Pakistan, Powell said he envisions resumption of U.S. training of Pakistani military personnel but said such activity won't be possible for the time being because of lingering sanctions against Pakistan. He said arms sales may not be legal but added there is no reason the issue can't be discussed. India has been sharing intelligence on terrorism groups and also has been conferring with the Pentagon about upgrading military ties. Sanctions barring transfers of military equipment to India were waived recently. A U.S. program to provide training to Indian military personnel may be expanded, U.S. officials said. Powell must gingerly address the issue of military transfers to the two countries lest one or the other accuse him of favoritism. India and Pakistan fought two wars over Kashmir and now have nuclear weapons. The latest spate of tension over the Indian-held and predominantly Muslim region resulted from a car bombing there that killed almost 40 people. India, outraged, blamed Pakistan. Pakistan says aggrieved Kashmiris are fighting for self-determination. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-10.15.01-16:46:27-14798