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Firing will harden Indian stand at foreign secretary-level talks

George Iype in New Delhi

The heavy firing by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control will force Indian diplomats to take a hard line at next month's foreign secretary-level talks in Delhi.

Indian defence, home and external affairs ministry officials held a high-level meeting on Monday in New Delhi to review the Kashmir situation.

"The latest incidents of firing by Pakistanis prove that they are trying to build up a reservoir of terrorists in Kashmir," a senior defence ministry official told Rediff On The NeT.

Defence ministry officials say they have not been taken unawares by Pakistan's sudden offensive. Sources said it has been the Pakistani army's ploy to distract Indian troops and allow Kashmiri militants to sneak into the valley during the months before winter.

Several Pakistani soldiers and at least three Indian solders including a major were killed in the exchange of fire along the LoC.

According to reports from Kashmir that the defence ministry has been monitoring round the clock, Pakistani troops fired on Indian posts along almost the entire stretch of the LoC -- in Jammu, Kargil, Rajauri, Siachen, Tanghar and Uri sectors.

Reports said the Uri sector came under maximum fire. As far as Pakistan is concerned, Uri -- which has been a prominent battlefield in all Indo-Pak wars -- is one of the major infiltration routes for militants.

Saying the firing has the backing of Pakistan's generals, the defence ministry official said, "the tactic is to keep Kashmir a live issue on the eve of the foreign secretary-level talks."

"We expected the Pakistanis to resort to such action," the official said, pointing out how the Siachen glacier witnessed heavy Pakistani firing in May, days before Prime Ministers Inder Kumar Gujral and Nawaz Sharief met at the SAARC conference in Male.

Though he felt the episode would not derail the foreign secretary-level dialogue, the official said, "the incident will definitely alter the tempo of the talks."

Indian officials also believe that Pakistan wants to keep the Kashmir issue on the boil before the United Nations general assembly meeting in September.

The firing is also said to be driven by Pakistan's failure to engineer violence in Kashmir and other parts of India during the celebrations to mark 50 years of Independence.

EARLIER REPORTS:
On the cusp of conflict
The Kashmir Hurdle

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