NEW DELHI, March 20: Identical reports in leading newspapers here on Friday about an alleged US request to India to ease the military pressure on Pakistan's border has been denied by the US embassy here, but the loosely sourced reports raised questions in diplomatic circles about the reason for their sudden circulation.

The Hindu said though the Indian foreign ministry had fought off the initial drive to formally extend US envoy Richard Holbrooke’s ‘AfPak’ mandate to India, the Obama administration’s Special Representative for the region “drew first blood last week, asking New Delhi to draw down its own troop presence on the Pakistan border so that Islamabad can beef up its presence on the Afghan front”.

It said the request that India de-escalate its forces on the border was conveyed to Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon during his visit to Washington last week. The Hindu quoted “well placed sources” for the report.

It said that in response India told the United States that any escalation which had taken place on the border in the wake of last November’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai was entirely on the Pakistani side. Mr Holbrooke was also told that India had not deployed additional forces that could now be withdrawn to other locations.

“Indian officials believe the redeployment of Pakistani troops to the Indian border in December 2008 was prompted by the military establishment’s desire to talk up the prospect of war with India and thereby divert attention from the complicity of Pakistani elements in the Mumbai incidents. The Obama administration was thus told that Pakistan’s unwillingness to revert to the pre-Mumbai troop deployment pattern had nothing to do with any increased military threat from India.”

The newspaper said there had been no major redeployment of Indian troops to the border although the army did extend the duration of its winter exercises in December, in part as a contingency for any unexpected developments.

“But the situation now, say officials, is completely normal on the Indian side,” it said.

It noted that several American officials and analysts had made a link between tension on the India-Pakistan border and the war in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the Times of India said US intelligence agency CIA on Thursday assured India that it would share with this country all India-centric intelligence — coming from its sources in Pakistan and Afghanistan — on a regular basis and help Indian agencies in their efforts to fully operationalise the centralised information sharing mechanism post-Mumbai terror attack.

The assurance came during CIA chief Leon Panetta's meetings here with a number of top intelligence officials from Intelligence Bureau and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).Mr Panetta, who chose India as his first overseas visit since assuming office, also met Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram and discussed various issues, including security and intelligence cooperation and the fight against terrorism.

This was the third high-level visit by a senior US official to India since the Mumbai terror attacks. The Director of the National Intelligence, John McConnell, came to New Delhi in December last year. This was followed by the visit of FBI director Robert Mueller early this month.

In its version of the India-Pakistan troop movement claims and counter-claims, the Times of India quoted defence sources here as saying that Pakistan had deployed several army brigades along Indo-Pak border in Jehlum-Chenab and Chenab-Ravi corridors sparking concern in the Indian armed forces.

“The forces had been withdrawn from Pakistan's troubled north-western tribal belt where they were battling Taliban to put pressure on the US, which had been pressing Islamabad to act against terrorists operating from its soil, and diverted to the border with India, the sources said.

However that paper added that the US embassy in New Delhi had dismissed the media reports saying they were not accurate.
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