ISLAMABAD, June 27: The government has asked United States to push New Delhi to allow neutral international experts to interpret data from the electronic sensors that the US has provided to India.
The US has reportedly provided wide-angle and heat-seeking sensors to India, which have been deployed along the Line of Control (LoC) to monitor cross-border movement. India had earlier installed Israeli electronic sensors along the LoC and had found them “ineffective”.
Pakistan raised the issue of reliability of Indian interpretation of the data collected with chief of the US central command, Gen Tommy Franks, during his visit here on Monday, defence sources told Dawn on Thursday.
Gen Franks was told that since the US administration had provided electronic sensors to India to monitor the alleged infiltration, it should persuade India to agree to a neutral body for gathering and interpreting the data from them.
Pakistan stressed that appointment of an independent body to verify Indian claims was imperative since India had persistently touted that infiltration across the LoC was the central issue behind the military standoff between the two countries.
Military officials argued that Indian data could not be held credible and that the only way to lend any credence to the data collected on the other side of LoC was to have a neutral body gathering and reading the data.
The insistence stems from the conflicting statements coming from the Indian leadership on infiltration. Last week, Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes said in Srinagar that the “infiltration of rebels had nearly ended,” but a couple of days later Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said: “There has been no change in Pakistan’s policy so far as cross-border infiltration is concerned.”
The US commander was also asked in his meetings with President Pervez Musharraf and his counterpart at the GHQ to play a role in bringing India to the negotiating table to end the standoff.
Gen Franks was also reminded that Pakistan had committed a large number of its troops along its western border to support the anti-Al-Qaeda operations despite the “real threat” it faced on the eastern border.
