M A I N   N E W S

Heavy shelling on border
Pak deploys another division

Jammu, December 27
Pakistani Rangers opened heavy unprovoked firing on frontier Indian positions in the Samba, Akhnoor and Ranbir Singh Pura sectors along the international border this morning.

Indian army men patrol on the Line of Control in the Pallanwala area of the Chhamb sector on Thursday.  — PTI photo

An Indian soldier runs out of a bunker carrying his medium machine gun in the Chhamb sector of Jammu on Wednesday. — Reuters photo

Pakistani soldiers install an anti-aircraft gun near Kemari oil terminal in Karachi on Thursday. — Reuters photo

Highly-placed security sources said the Rangers sprayed bullets from heavy machine guns around 6.30 a.m., targeting the Galar and Narayanpur border outposts in the Samba sector and provoking heavy retaliation from soldiers manning the frontiers.

The exchange continued for about two hours after which its intensity lessened. Neither side sustained any damage.

The Rangers also fired on the Abdullian and Korotana outposts in the R.S. Pura sector at about 9.45 a.m. using small and medium-calibre weapons. Indian soldiers effectively retaliated and the showdown was continuing when reports last came in.

Reports of cross-border firing were also received from New Kana Chak and Khurd in the Akhnoor sector.

The 8 Division of the Pakistani army has taken over the ditch-cum-bundhs (DCBs) along the 80 km of the international border and has installed high-calibre weapons in them overnight.

The sources said soldiers manning the frontier positions had seen Pakistani regulars taking over the DCBs from the Rangers and radio intercepts revealed that the regulars had requisitioned more engineers from the Technical Corps to assist them in installing heavy weaponry.

Among the weapons were 185 mm guns, which Pakistan considers equivalent to the Bofors gun, and 82 mm mortars normally used for heavy shelling on pre-determined targets.

In a related development last night, the special services group (SSG) of the Pakistani army was seen fortifying bunkers along R.S. Pura sector, besides Suragpur and Rampur near the zero line opposite the Samba sector.

The SSG consisted of commandos specially trained in sabotage and espionage. They were trained at various centres run by the Pakistani army in Sindh, Lahore, Muridke, Bahawalpur, Sialkot and Islamabad.

The sources said the deployment of the 8 Division was bound to render volatile an already tense border situation. UNI

Pakistan rules out nuclear war

Islamabad, December 27
Toning down rhetoric, Pakistan today firmly ruled out a nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan despite the build-up of troops along the borders.

Ruling out a nuclear war between the two countries, a defence spokesman, Major-Gen Rashid Qureshi, said Pakistan and India were responsible states and there was no way either could “realistically” think of a nuclear war between the two countries.

General Qureshi also denied assertions from a reporter that the Indian Air Force had violated Pakistan airspace a few times during the past two days.

Asked to react to Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes’s statement that Indian deployment would be completed in two to three days, he said, “We are well aware of the Indian Army’s deployment. We will take appropriate defensive action”, he said and declined to give details about the Pakistan’s troop movement.

Meanwhile, in the backdrop of action being initiated against the two Islamic fundamentalist groups involved in the attack on Indian Parliament, Islamabad today renewed its offer of talks between President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee at the forthcoming SAARC summit in Kathmandu early next month.

Replying to a question about the chances of a meeting between General Musharraf and Mr Vajpayee, a Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman, Aziz Ahmed Khan, told reporters that the ball was in India’s court. PTI