October 25, 2002	Friday	Sha’aban 18,1423

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NEW DELHI, Oct 24: Indian troops have begun withdrawing from the Pakistan border amid acid exchanges between New Delhi and Islamabad but the process to send nearly 500,000 men back to their peacetime locations could take up to two months, Defence Minister George Fernandes said on Thursday.

In the first authentic remarks that the pullback has, in fact, begun, Fernandes told Press Trust of India: “The re-deployment of our forces deployed along the international border with Pakistan after the Dec 13 attack on parliament has begun and the entire exercise will be completed in a two-month timeframe.”

Fernandes said the deployment of Indian troops would remain unchanged along the Line of Control in Kashmir.

“During the winter season, the influx of militants from across the border comes down to a very low level. Our response will be on the basis of influx,” he said.

Most of the troops would be redeployed from the international border along Jammu, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat sectors.

“We will be where we were before this challenge was thrown at us,” he said.

PTI said Fernandes challenged his critics who accused him of incurring a huge financial burden by rushing troops to the border, saying: “We have achieved our objectives of the deployment.”

India’s redployment, seen widely as the result of a sustained international pressure, has been accompanied by verbal sniping with Pakistan and lingering uncertainty about the next steps towards peace between the two countries.

“Countries ruled by dictators or a militaryman may, under international pressure, say sometimes they do not believe in terrorism and are combating it. However, actually they feel that if ISI is used to achieve political objectives, it is not wrong,” Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani told paramilitary troopers of the Indo-Tibetan border police.

“The world should ostracise such nations which support terrorism so that they realise that not only one country but the whole world is against terror,” Advani was quoted by Zee News channel as saying.

In a further twist to the existing standoff, The Hindu newspaper reported on Thursday that India had made attendance in the scheduled Saarc summit in Islamabad next year conditional on solid progress being made on economic cooperation agreements within the regional grouping.

Earlier a news channel had claimed terrorism was the real hurdle.

“There has to be something concrete to show as far as progress on Sapta and Safta are concerned,” the newspaper quoted an Indian source as saying, adding that crucial meetings at the official level are to take place next week in Kathmandu.

The Indian Commerce Secretary, Dipak Chatterjee, would travel to Nepal for a meeting of the Saarc Committee on Economic Cooperation, The Hindu said quoting its sources.

Indian officials acknowledged that a formal letter was received last month from Pakistan through the Saarc Secretariat in Kathmandu proposing Jan 11-13 as dates for the summit meeting.

After India makes an assessment of the progress at the Kathmandu meetings, a decision would be taken whether or not the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee will travel to Islamabad for the Saarc summit.

“The sources maintained that India was likely to decide next month whether or not the dates were suitable for the prime minister to visit Pakistan,” The Hindu said. The uncertainty has drawn a sharp rebuke from Pakistan which has accused New Delhi of creating confusion about the holding of the summit.

The Hindu quoted its sources as expressing fears about the possibility of high-intensity “terrorist strikes” in the run-up to the Saarc summit or even during the course of the meeting.

“Such a concern, clearly, is a real one given the fact that Pakistan-based terrorist groups have been targeting innocent civilians both within and outside Jammu and Kashmir,” the newspaper said.

Asked whether some countries had sent in their consent to the dates proposed by Pakistan, the sources replied in the affirmative.

They also pointed out to the fact that no government had taken shape in Pakistan as yet and New Delhi was still watching the situation.

There is little doubt that given the “high-voltage” media coverage being given to Pakistan, India and the Saarc summit, “this controversy will not die down till New Delhi decides one way or the other,” the newspaper said.