Anti-tank guided missiles seized
From M.L. Kak
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, May 29 — The troops achieved a major breakthrough in their ongoing anti-insurgency operation when they recovered two anti-tank guided missiles from the forest belt of Gotaru in Rajouri district today.

Four days back the Indian troops had recovered one anti-tank guided missile launcher near the same village. It is for the first time in the 10-year long Pak-sponsored proxy war that ATGMs were seized from the militant hideouts in the state.

Defence Ministry sources said the highly sophisticated weapons may have been recently smuggled into Rajouri from across the border. The idea behind smuggling into Jammu region the ATGMs was to hit vital defence installations, low-flying helicopters, bunkers and ammunition dumps and tanks. Since the militants had failed to engage the troops in direct encounters in Poonch and Rajouri districts they had been equipped with ATGMs to hit the targets even from distance of 2.5 km.

Experts are of the opinion that the ATGMs were to be used only by Afghan mercenaries who had used them during their fight against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan.

The two missiles recovered weighed 7.2 kg each and the ATGM launcher recovered four days ago weighed 22.5 kg. The troops engaged in the task of flushing out the militants have been directed to carry out regular search operations in the forest belts of Poonch and Rajouri against such weapons because it was not possible that militants may have been supplied only with two ATGMs.

"The Indian military operations, including air strikes in Kargil sector, will continue till the infiltrators are pushed out of Indian territory", said the GOC-in-C-Northern Command, Lt-Gen H.M. Khanna, in Srinagar today while briefing newsmen regarding the latest security scenario in the eastern belt.

He said it was no longer a proxy war but "near war" that Pakistan had launched against India in Kargil and Dras areas.

He said Pak regular troops backed by Afghan mercenaries and Talibans were fighting in Kargil sector and air strikes had to be launched to dislodge infiltrators and Pak troops from their camps on the higher ridges in the area.

Gen Khanna said "our task is to throw them out of the upper heights" and the air strikes will continue till the infiltrators were either eliminated or forced to cross over to Pakistan.

The Army Commander also admitted that the Pak supply line to the infiltrators had not yet been either snapped or stopped. "But we have succeeded in halting the march of the infiltrators," he said.

Meanwhile the Indian Air Force MiGs and helicopter carried out brief operations in the Kargil-Dras belt today. It was on the fourth day in succession that the ground forces received support from the Air Force. But since the Pak infiltrators had been camping on heights raging between 11,000 ft and 16,000 the men of the Indian infantry had not yet been able to scale the mountain peaks to dislodge the intruders, who continue to receive support from the Pak troops who resorted to heavy artillery fire on the Indian pickets and villages.

In the meantime security arrangements had been further tightened in sensitive areas of the Jammu region. Besides security forces of several intelligence agencies had been deployed on railway and bus stations and all the roads linking border villages with the towns have been placed under surveillance.

USA not to send envoy to South Asia

WASHINGTON, May 29 (UNI) — The Clinton Administration, at this time, has no plan to send a special envoy to South Asia, thus ruling out the possibility of any US diplomatic initiative to defuse the escalating military tension between India and Pakistan over the fighting in Kashmir.

Apparently, the USA prefers to leave the two countries to sort out the matter directly and if they need any help, its senior diplomats are available in Delhi and Islamabad.

Moreover, the problem has not acquired that serious a dimension to warrant the attention of Secretary of State Madeleine, Albright who is preoccupied with the Kosovo crisis, according to officials.

Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Karl Inderfurth who is handling the situation, met Indian Ambassador Naresh Chandra and his Pakistani counterpart Riaz Khokhar, separately here on Thursday and underlined the need for restraint — the advice given earlier by the US envoys in Delhi and Islamabad to the governments concerned.

Replying to questions about the Kashmir situation yesterday, State Department spokesman James Rubin said that senior American diplomats in India and Pakistan were in touch with host government officials "to express our strong concern about this matter, to urge them to show restraint and prevent the fighting from spreading, and to urge both countries to work together to reduce tensions."

Mr Inderfurth gave the same message to the Indian and Pakistani ambassadors here on Thursday, he added.

Mr Rubin said the continued fighting underscored the need for India and Pakistan to resolve their differences.

"We hope they will be able to do this quickly in the context of the recent Lahore summit. We understand that there have been a number of conversations between Prime Ministers — A.B.Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif. We believe that Indian and Pakistani military and political leaders need to be in a touch so that there are no misunderstandings and miscalculations. We thing they should support bilateral diplomatic efforts to pull their countries back from the danger of a heightened and far more dangerous conflict,’ he added.

Replying to a question about the ground situation in Kashmir, Mr Rubin said; "Indian air strikes and ground attacks continue against positions occupied by infiltrators from Pakistan that are on India’s side, but very close to the Line of Control in Kashmir.

He also said that an Indian helicopter was reportedly shot down yesterday " on the Indian side of the Line of Control."

The spokesman, however, said: "This fighting is the most serious in recent times in Kashmir and its proximity to the Line of Control makes it of grave concern to the USA."

He noted India’s statement that "it will limit its attacks to its side of the Line of Control, but has every intention of dislodging the militants there, who are threatening a key road to Northern Kashmir."

With respect to the exact location of the downing of the two Indian Air Force jets, he said: "We are unable to establish whether Indian aircraft have or have not crossed the Line of Control."