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| India-Pakistan |
| 'Pakistan withdraws thousands of troops from Indian border' |
| 2007-11-08 |
| Pakistan has withdrawn tens of thousands of troops from the border with India in a bid to quell rising violence by pro-Taliban militants in the northwest, officials in New Delhi said on Wednesday. A top defence ministry official said Pakistani military’s strength along the frontier had hit an “all-time low” as troops were poured into NWFP bordering Afghanistan. “Our estimates are based on tested intelligence inputs from within Pakistan and feedback from our watch on their frontier assets,” added a member of India’s military intelligence. India said the shift has left “gaping holes” in Pakistan’s eastern flank facing India. The Indian Express newspaper, quoting independent sources on Tuesday, put the number of combat troops withdrawn at 38,000. Pakistan denial: Denying these reports from India, Inter Service Public Relations Director General Major General Waheed Arshad said Pakistan did not station troops along the recognised international border with India during peacetime. But he said Pakistan did have troops deployed on the Line of Control, the de facto border with India in disputed Kashmir, as well as on the Siachen glacier in the Himalayas. “Not a single soldier has been pulled back from these two deployments,” he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #16 OTOH, RIAN > RUSSIA - threatens to [consider?]deploy forces along its western borders wid Europe due to US-West's failure to ratify or resolve CFE Treaty issue. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-11-08 21:48 |
| #15 Zen: Excellent use of the term scheisswagen. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-11-08 16:48 |
| #14 Yup, john frum, that old "Rule of Law" thingy sure has a lot going for it. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-11-08 16:31 |
| #13 The Indian Federal structure has prevented regions from descending into the chaos you see in parts of Africa and Asia. No Mugabe type figure can survive for long. There is a strong federal government that will dismiss him, an independent judiciary that will jail him and 1.5 million armed men (army, paramilitary and police forces) that will enforce the law. |
| Posted by: john frum 2007-11-08 16:16 |
| #12 I just assume that part of the world will be continually be fucked up. That way I am always right. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-11-08 16:15 |
| #11 Or to think how much more screwed up India might be if all three had been retained. Hard to know which way history would have turned had it been different. That's one of my problems with counterfactual history; it assumes only one event is contingent. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-11-08 16:02 |
| #10 The first territory carved out of the British Raj was Burma. It's more than a little clear that Burma pretty much set the pace for what to expect from partitioning. It's sad to think just how far along all three different regions—Burma, Bangladesh and Pakistan—might now be had they remained a part of India proper. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-11-08 15:56 |
| #9 I think it speaks volumes that India is not making some real hay out of Pakistan's dilemma. Perv can thank Allah that Manmohan Singh is the Indian PM. A PM like Indira Gandhi and a RAW chief like Kao would have him hopping |
| Posted by: john frum 2007-11-08 15:17 |
| #8 The first territory carved out of the British Raj was Burma. Then Pakistan, later split into Bangladesh. I wonder if Pakistan's pieces will be any less dysfunctional? |
| Posted by: john frum 2007-11-08 15:10 |
| #7 I think it speaks volumes that India is not making some real hay out of Pakistan's dilemma. Admittedly, the nuclear card tends to keep things a bit quiet. Yet, after the endless provocation and assaults India has endured at Pakistan's hands she is more than entitled to give this teetering scheisswagen a gentle nudge towards the brink. One can only assume it better serves India's interests to stand back and quietly One thing is certain, partitioning has been an utter disaster. Pakistan is a failed experiment in Islamic "purity". India is now bracketed by two of the most glaring economic, political and humanitarian disasters in recent human history. Political Islam has shown itself for what it truly is: A continuous and ongoing crime against humanity. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-11-08 12:33 |
| #6 test (damn cookies) |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2007-11-08 12:24 |
| #5 Why? They are doing it themselves. |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2007-11-08 11:58 |
| #4 Oh, look out! Now India is going to invade Pakistan! /sarcasm |
| Posted by: treo 2007-11-08 10:00 |
| #3 Not an Indian but I do wish Pakis a very long, and very bloody, civil war. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2007-11-08 08:00 |
| #2 Finally figuring out where the real enemy lies, eh? |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-11-08 01:38 |
| #1 “Not a single soldier has been pulled back from these two deployments” "...but several thousand guys pretending to be soldiers have been..." |
| Posted by: PBMcL 2007-11-08 00:22 |