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Are Indian Troops Moving Toward Border?
December 30, 2008 9:45 AM
By NICK SCHIFRIN, ABC News Digital Reporter, Islamabad
Today Pakistan’s foreign minister made a rare televised address, accusing India of moving its troops toward the border and asking the Indian military to relax its posture as a goodwill gesture.
A military official said Monday that Pakistan had moved troops to reinforce forward positions toward the border to the point where they could be called up within 12 hours. The Indians, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI), the country's best news agency, have done something similar, and recently told their three service chiefs that they couldn’t take leave.
The Pakistani foreign minister did not make any promises about Pakistani troops if India moved its troops back.
Basically, both countries are moving troops toward the border but not to the border.
As PTI put it: "The effort is to maintain a more alert posture without causing undue alarm in Western capitals -- so that the time taken for full operational readiness is reduced to a minimum."
But Indian Foreign Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee denied any such moves today, and in general the momentum in the last few days has been toward a relaxation of tensions. As a goodwill gesture, India today is releasing across the Wagah border about 60 Pakistanis who had been held in Indian jails.
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December 30, 2008 in Nick Schifrin | Permalink | User Comments (1)
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Oh boy, population control folks are going to be loving this one.
Posted by: Huh | Dec 31, 2008 4:58:12 PM
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