Might India Bomb Pakistani Kashmir?
A U.S. intelligence source has told colleagues in Washington that the U.S. remains concerned; one reason why Secretary of State Rice and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Rear Admiral Mullen (who is the administration's point person on Pakistan) were so quickly sent off to cool tempers in New Delhi, and prod Islamabad into movement..
L-e-T has been identified as the group behind the Mumbai attack by both the Indian and U.S. governments. Yesterday, the Indian police released photos and IDs of eight of the nine dead gunmen. All of them, they say, came from Pakistan. Pakistan-administered Kashmir is their stronghold, and the location of at least one L-e-T camp, near Muffazarabad, where the Mumbai gunmen are believed to have undergone some of their training. It was raided Monday by Pakistan's army.
Any kind of military movement by either side threatens a quick escalation into all-out regional conflict between two nuclear-armed nations. But since 2003, the regional peace process designed to bring about rapprochement between India and Pakistan has had some impact; in fact, Pakistan's foreign minister was in New Delhi when the Mumbai gunmen struck.
Pakistan's civilian president published an op-ed piece yesterday, as part of Pakistan's campaign to persuade the U.S. and India that Pakistan is engaged in fighting a common enemy. Asif Ali Zardari began by recounting the story of his wife, the assassinated Benazir Bhutto, killed by terrorists last year in Pakistan. "The Mumbai attacks were directed not only at India but also at Pakistan's new democratic government and the peace process with India that we have initiated."
But tensions are still so high that India's Defence Ministry felt obliged on Wednesday to formally deny that India's Air Force was on high alert (a saber-rattling portent of possible military action).
"It's normal for the armed forces to remain on alert even in normal times," Defense Ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar told the Press Trust of India.
The army, navy, and air force officers, all independently denied reports that their "respective headquarters had instructed their units and troops to be on a state of alert or had cancelled leave of personnel to ensure its force levels were high."