An additional complicating factor in the War Against Terrorism, especially since both India and Pakistan have atomic weapons and intermediate range delivery systems to use them against one another.

--- and, what relationship is there between this crisis and the JUST breaking news of an airplane hijacking in New Dehli???

Hyperlink: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011003/wl/attack_kashmir_dc.html

Wednesday October 3 6:02 AM ET

Indian Kashmir Chief in Emotional Call for Revenge By Sheikh Mushtaq

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - An emotional chief minister of India's bloodied Jammu and Kashmir state called on Wednesday for war on Muslim guerrilla camps in neighboring Pakistan in the wake of a rebel attack that killed 38 people. Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, weeping as he addressed the state assembly at its first sitting since Monday's attack on the legislature, demanded retaliation. ``Enough is enough,'' Abdullah told the assembly as he struggled to compose himself. ``The time has come for us to wage a war against Pakistan, destroy militant camps,'' he said.

Most assembly members, officials and security personnel were wiping away tears as he spoke. Abdullah said there was no option but to strike the guerrillas and their camps in Pakistan, which he blamed for fomenting the nearly 12-year-old Muslim separatist rebellion in India's only Muslim-majority state. At least 38 people were killed and more than 60 wounded on Monday when rebels drove a hijacked jeep loaded with explosives to the gate of the legislature building in the state capital Srinagar and detonated it. Other guerrillas leaped out of vehicle before the blast and ran inside, hurling grenades.

The attack was the worst in Kashmir since suspected Islamic militants slammed hijacked jets into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington on September 11. Indian authorities blamed a Pakistan-based group for the attack. A caller identifying himself as a member of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad told newspaper offices in Srinagar on Monday its fighters had carried out the attack. But a day later, the guerrilla group denied any role in the suicide bombing and said it could be the work of Indian agents.

About a dozen Muslim rebel groups are fighting Indian rule in Kashmir. India accuses Pakistan of providing training facilities for the rebels in its territory, supplying them and sending them in to Indian-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan, which condemned Monday's attack in Srinagar, says it only offers the guerrillas moral support.

LINKED TO BIN LADEN

The Indian federal government said on Tuesday that while its patience was wearing thin with Pakistan's support for separatists in Kashmir it planned no immediate military response. India, which has been seeking to broaden the U.S. fight against terror, said the Jaish-e-Mohammad group which it insisted staged the suicide bombing, was linked with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, believed behind the attacks in the United States. Federal Home (interior) Minister Lal Krishna Advani was due to fly to Srinagar with a team of officials to review the security situation in the state where more than 30,000 people have been killed since the revolt erupted in late 1989.

In New Delhi, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee held a meeting of a cabinet security committee and chiefs of the army, navy and air force to discuss measures to tackle the guerrillas.

Copyright, Reuters News Service, Fair Use for Educational and Research Purposes Only

-- Robert Riggs (rxr.999@worldnet.att.net), October 03, 2001

Answers

Hyperlink: http://www.timesofindia.com/articleshow.asp? art_id=660707136

Patience running out, warns Omar TIMES NEWS NETWORK NEW DELHI: India is running out of patience, minister of state for external affairs Omar Abdullah has warned, terming Pakistan’s self- proclaimed support to Kashmiri militants a direct contravention of the recent UN Security Council resolution (1373) condemning terrorism. While ruling out any direct action on the terrorist training camps in PoK or a hot pursuit of terrorists across the border for the time being, Abdullah, however, reserved the right for India to take whatever action as necessary to meet the situation.

Laying the blame for Monday’s attack on the Jammu and Kashmir assembly at Pakistan’s door, Abdullah at a press conference here called upon Pakistan to cease any kind of support to terrorists. He said there were clear linkages between the Jaish-e-Mohammad that was responsible for Monday’s attack and Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida. The international community should take action against terrorists operating in J&K, he added.

While making it clear that as of now there was no change in India’s policy of restraint, Abdullah sounded a note of warning by stressing that India’s patience was not limitless and should not be tested. However, no action would be taken to exacerbate the situation right now, Abdullah said, while dismissing suggestions that India’s patience was a sign of its weakness. Refusing to spell out any concrete plan of action that the Indian government was proposing either through military or diplomatic means, the minister confined himself to saying India was joining the international coalition against terrorism.

Abdullah said the US would have to take cognisance of Pakistan- sponsored terrorism in Kashmir in the second phase of its operations as there was credible evidence linking terrorist organisations in the state to the Al-Qaida. India did not envisage a situation where the US would be satisfied with action taken in the first phase of its war against terrorism. In response to a question, Abdullah said India was not, however, looking at the US to take action but would work with the international community. He dismissed suggestions that terrorism in Kashmir did not have a global impact. Terrorist organisations had worldwide networks and even Kashmir had seen the presence of terrorists from as many as 16 different nationalities.

India welcomed Pakistan’s condemnation of the terrorist attack, Abdullah said, and sought that Pakistan put its money where its mouth is; India would appreciate action more than words. India was not even demanding that Pakistan start bombing the camps in its territory but that it should cease the diplomatic, political and moral support that it provided to the terrorists. He said India expected an escalation of Pakistan-sponsored violence in J&K to counter the unpopularity of the steps it had taken in support of the US.

Copyright, The Times of India, Fair Use for Educational and Research Purposes Only

-- Robert Riggs (rxr.999@worldnet.att.net), October 03, 2001.