War Warnings In India

Non-essential U.S. diplomats and dependents began leaving India Friday, and the State Department urged 60,000 other Americans there to do likewise, CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports.

At the same time, Washington mounted an all-out effort, led by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to head off a conflict between India and Pakistan.

"Tensions have risen to serious levels" and those Americans who choose to remain should steer clear of all border areas between the two countries, the State Department said.

There are about 600 U.S. diplomatic workers and dependents in India, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

While he stressed the potential for conflict, Boucher also said Pakistani authorities apparently have issued instructions to halt the influx of militants into Kashmir.

"We are still looking for confirmation of results on the ground," Boucher said.

For the time being, at least, the department passed up the tougher step of ordering non-emergency U.S. employees to depart. The action taken Friday calls for voluntary departure.

"Conditions along India's border with Pakistan and in the state of Jammu and Kashmir have deteriorated," the department said in its travel warning.

The warning cited artillery exchanges between Indian and Pakistani troops and said terrorist groups linked to the al Qaeda network and implicated in attacks on Americans have attacked and killed civilians.

It was not clear how many Americans would take the State Department's advice.

Kimberley Manno, a 29-year-old American aid worker who has been in Bombay for nearly five months, said she had not yet made up her mind about leaving.

"It's so hard to tell about a situation like this," said Manno, who comes from Medford, N.J. and works for the GIVE foundation charity. "But it clearly seems to be more serious than any time before this. I hope cooler heads will prevail.

"This still seems like a relatively safe place to be and when you look around you — the world just isn't safe," she said.

Chicago resident Vipin Goyal said he already had his bags packed just in case he had to rush out of Bombay — and he was paying close attention to the government warning although it hadn't convinced him to leave.

"These guys have more information than I do, so things are serious," said 26-year-old Goyal, a consultant with MTV. "I'm not going to jump on a plane. But I actually do have my stuff ready in case I have to leave in a hurry."

The departures will be on commercial flights, which are plentiful, a senior U.S. official said. President Bush was informed of the State Department's decision early Friday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

"I don't want to get into speculation. ... Anytime you have tension between two countries that possess nuclear weapons, it is a serious situation and that is all the more reason why high-level diplomacy is ongoing with India and Pakistan," McClellan said.

Dependents of nonessential U.S. personnel in the embassy in New Delhi and U.S. consulates in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras also were encouraged to depart at U.S. government expense.

In a parallel move, Britain advised its citizens to consider leaving India, saying a dangerous situation between Indian and Pakistani forces was developing.

The families of British government staff, and officials holding less-than-essential government positions in New Delhi and Mumbai will be offered the chance to return home, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said. His office estimates there are about 150 government staff in India, with 200 dependents.

The United States and Britain have been coordinating their South Asia diplomacy.

In Pakistan, all nonessential U.S. Embassy staff and dependents were ordered home in March, five days after the bombing of a Christian church in Islamabad that killed four people, including two Americans.

The 7,000 to 10,000 U.S. citizens in Pakistan were informed of the ordered departure, a way of encouraging them to depart as well.

A travel warning that already had been in effect was reissued.

Dozens of embassy staff remain in Pakistan. The embassy in Islamabad is open, as are consulates in Karachi, Peshawar and Lahore, although they are heavily fortified.

India regularly warns the State Department of preparations for war with Pakistan because of the influx of Islamic extremists into the Indian side of disputed Kashmir, said a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

While India has not indicated a timetable, the administration takes the warnings seriously.

India blames the violence in Kashmir on Islamic militants crossing the border with the aid, they claim, of Pakistan. Pakistan insists it is doing all it can to stop cross border terror.

But on the Pakistani side in the town of Hajira, near the line that splits Kashmir between the two rival nations, Kashmiris told CBS News that outside militants, helped by Pakistani soldiers, have launched raids on India from the surrounding hills.

They said they don't want war, but do want independence from India and Pakistan. They added that they feel like pawns in the big countries' power play.

"Nuclear war will destroy the whole country and a huge population," a resident said. "That is dangerous for all countries."

On Thursday, President Bush took a tough line toward Pakistan, a major ally in the U.S. war against the al Qaeda terror network, demanding that President Pervez Musharraf "live up to his word" and crack down on Islamic extremists' cross-border attacks in Kashmir.

For its part, Pakistan has still not transferred troops from its border with Afghanistan, where they are helping the U.S. search for remaining al Qaeda fighters, to Kashmir where 180,000 Pakistani troops face more than 250,0000 Indian troops.

U.S. officials say the fact that Pakistan is not rushing to reinforce its troops in Kashmir is a sign Pakistan is confident the threat of its nuclear weapons will keep India from attacking. But these same officials also say India doesn't really believe Pakistan would actually use its nuclear weapons. It is a situation ripe for miscalculation.

Mr. Bush deployed top American officials in the region — Secretary Rumsfeld is due there a week from Sunday — and said: "We are making it very clear to both Pakistan and India that war will not serve their interests."

Secretary of State Colin Powell will send his deputy, Richard Armitage, to India and Pakistan for talks next Thursday and Friday, with Rumsfeld to arrive shortly afterward, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

"We have no desire to make ourselves the mediator," Boucher said. He said any solution to the dispute over Kashmir depends on dialogue and taking into account the wishes of the people of the territory, he said.