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American Morning

America Strikes Back: Tensions Between India, Pakistan Increase Over Kashmir

Aired October 17, 2001 - 09:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: As we have been reporting, there is word this morning that there are new military tensions between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour joins us from Islamabad, Pakistan, with new developments on that story -- Christiane.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, we reported that just over an hour ago the Pakistani president's spokesman came out and said that the troops were now on high alert, and amplified that by our military sources to mean that troops around the border area were on high alert because Pakistan said that it detected unusual Indian troop movement and the movements of some air force assets which it thought could be a threat.

India has now come out and said it rejects those claims, that there are no unusual Indian troop movements. This was a defense ministry spokesman from India just shortly thereafter.

Nonetheless, this is what Pakistan is saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. RASHID QUREISHI, PAKISTANI GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN: The Pakistan armed forces are fully alive to the situation and are on a high state of alert, ready to thwart any attempt at mischief or misadventure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: All of this started on Monday night, just before Secretary Powell arrived in Pakistan. India reported that military positions had fired on Pakistani military posts. They said it was punitive action because of what they said were infiltration is about Pakistani side. Pakistan rejected that, and there has been this tit- for-tat and war of words going on ever since. Now this is what came out of Pakistan and India again today, about high alert, and India denying it.

Clearly, this is something that the United States is watching very closely. The president has already asked both countries to, quote, "stand down" over Kashmir. It's a source of great concern because both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers, and the international community is very concerned about any dispute boiling over in this particular region.

Meantime, on the other front, the war on targets in Afghanistan continues. And we have heard from our sources in Kabul, Jalalabad, and in Kandahar of another very heavy day, they say, of air bombardment against targets around these cities. Particularly, we are hearing from our sources in Kandahar that civilian targets may have been struck today. We understand that the Taliban is claiming that a bus was hit, with civilian passengers on it, it says, And then we are also hearing from our own sources; they say there has been unusually heavy striking near what they call populated areas. They say they visited one of the houses that was damaged, and they say they saw civilian casualties. And the official Taliban press agency from Afghanistan is claiming heavy casualties today. We are awaiting more details and more confirmation.

We are also being told that other targets, military targets around the cities were also hit -- Paula.

ZAHN: Christiane, finally this morning, let's go back again to the reports of the president's spokesperson in Pakistan. I just interviewed Sen. Joe Lieberman, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and he said he is very concerned by this information coming out of the region, the fact that Pakistan has put its armed forces on high alert. Just give us, again, some context on how the Indian government says that is fabrication and the Pakistani government says it is absolutely not.

AMANPOUR: This issue of Kashmir has been so, so passionate between these two countries for so many years, and it has such an ideological resonance on both sides, both in Pakistan and in Kashmir. Basically, the United States has asked both countries to cool tensions on their long-running dispute of Kashmir, particularly during this particular time of this war against terrorism.

And then, after the United States had that terrorist attack, India came out and strongly supported the United States, offering immediate and generous help and assistance in its war against terrorism. The United States needing Pakistan started to heavily court Pakistan; Pakistan turned to be a ally of the United States, and India has felt that perhaps an undue share of attention is being lavished on Pakistan.

Plus, India feels that Pakistan, in general, supports what it terms Islamic terrorist insurgency in Kashmir. So it is trying to send a very strong message; that is what analysts are saying.

And that is that is what's going on at the moment. And then we have these small incidents of firing, and both sides ratcheting up rhetoric.

ZAHN: Christiane Amanpour, thanks for helping us better understand that, with your perspective, this morning -- appreciate it.

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