ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan began moving thousands of troops away from the Afghan border toward India on Friday amid tensions following the Mumbai attacks, intelligence officials said. The move represents a sharp escalation in the stand off between the nuclear-armed neighbors and stands to weaken Pakistan's U.S.-backed campaign against al-Qaida and Taliban close to Afghanistan.
Two intelligence officials said the army's 14th Division was being redeployed to Kasur and Sialkot, close to the Indian border. They said some 20,000 troops were on the move. Earlier Friday, a security official said that all troop leave had been canceled.
| From orbat.com, the 14th Division is returning to its home station in the Cholistan sector (also known as the Multan sector) near Lahore, a key location to stop an Indian armored thrust into central Pakistan and the Pak cities to the east. Apparently the Indians have a very strong strike force on their side of the border in that location, and the 14th is part of Pakistan's XXXI Army Corps charged to stop said Indian strike force. The 14th had been sitting in garrison in the NWFP (silly western reporters no doubt thought they were fighting the Taliban, hah-hah), but now the 14th is moving to plug a potentially catastrophic hole for the Paks. It suggests that the Paks are worried that the Indians just might be coming this time. |
An Associated Press reporter in Dera Ismail Khan, a district that borders the Afghan-frontier province of South Waziristan, said he saw around 40 trucks loaded with soldiers heading away from the Afghan border.
A senior security official refused to comment directly on Friday's troop movements, but said, "Necessary defensive measures have been taken, they are in place and Pakistan's armed forces are prepared to tackle any eventuality." |