NEW DELHI, June 27: Indian forces will remain deployed at the borders with Pakistan until at least October, defence minister George Fernandes was quoted on Thursday as saying.
Fernandes was quoted by Zee news as saying the decision was taken on Wednesday at a meeting of India’s top security officials presided over by prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
“The CCS (Cabinet Committee on Security) has decided that the troops will stay on the borders till October. There will be no scaling down of the preparedness,” Fernandes told reporters.
He did not elaborate on what India would do after October.
After intense international diplomacy, India earlier this month lifted a ban on Pakistani civilian aircraft flying over its territory, a sanction imposed in December.
The Indian government and western diplomats say there has been a reduction in the flow of militants into Kashmir and that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had promised a US envoy that such infiltration would end permanently.
But Vajpayee seemed to go back on that assessment in an interview over the weekend with Newsweek magazine and The Washington Post, saying “there has been no change in Pakistan’s policy so far as cross-border infiltration is concerned”.
“Every day we are getting reports that infiltration continues unabated,” he said.
The Indian government is hoping the election in Kashmir, due by October 14, will be incident-free, Zee news said.
But Kashmir’s main pro-freedom alliance has urged a boycott of the polls, alleging that past votes have been rigged, and Hizbul Mujahedin has pledged to “sabotage” the election.
Press Trust of India quoted Fernandes as saying on Thursday that “some” infiltration was still on and the army would remain along the borders till at least October, after which a decision on its withdrawal would be taken depending on the situation.
“Some infiltration from across the border is still there. We have security forces along the borders and they will remain there till October,” he said.
“We cannot withdraw the forces till elections in Jammu and Kashmir are over and after that it depends on the situation,” he said.
Asked about Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s recent statements on ending cross-border incursions, Fernandes said: “He (Musharraf) is making contradictory statements and it is difficult to rely on him.”
Meanwhile, brushing aside as “unwarranted” travel advisories by the US, Britain and some other countries urging their citizens to defer visits to India, the Indian government on Thursday said foreigners were welcome to return to the country which was a “perfectly safe and secure place” for them.
Though these countries have partially revised their advisories dropping mention of asking its citizens in India to depart, they continue to advise them to defer travel to this country, contending that the risk of a conflict between the two neighbours “remains serious”.
“We have stressed from the very beginning that we never saw any need for such advisories. India is a perfectly safe place for foreigners,” PTI quoted official sources as saying.
While the latest revised travel announcement for India by the US State Department said a very high-level of tension between the two countries “has subsided somewhat,” the statement on Pakistan said tensions between the two countries “remain at serious levels” and the risk of intensified military hostilities could not be ruled out.
Asked if such travel advisories by the US, Britain, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and some others were also aimed at putting pressure on India, the sources said if there were pressure tactics, “they didn’t work”.
If at all there was any pressure, it has to be exerted on Pakistan to deliver on the pledges and assurances to end infiltration and cross-border terrorism besides dismantling of infrastructure of terrorists in that country.
“It is only through such deliverance on that pledge that we will see tensions being reduced,” the sources told PTI.
Asked whether such pressures had resulted in the easing of Indo-Pakistan tensions, the sources said India has never given indication at any time that it was inclined to raise tensions or to provoke conflict.
