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CNN Saturday Morning News

Tensions Between India, Pakistan May be Subsiding

Aired January 05, 2002 - 11:12   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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: The Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan met today at a regional summit in Nepal. There are conflicting reports whether that meeting was one-on-one or included other South Asian Foreign Ministers.

Either way, it could be a sign the tensions between the two nuclear powers might be subsiding, and it wasn't the first possible sign of a thaw, as CNN's Maria Ressa reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA RESSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In its face-off with Pakistan, India says it is finished moving its troops into position, bringing about a million soldiers to the border, according to Pakistan, which has also brought reinforcements to its side.

Even as Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf shook the hand of India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, mortar shelling continued across their borders.

After the December 13 attack on India's Parliament, domestic pressure has increased on the Indian Government to go to war.

SHANEEL CHANDA: They had to do something, otherwise the masses in India, the people they will be against the government and this will be overthrown.

RESSA: Forty-four year old Shaneel Chanda exports furniture around the world. He says the War on Terrorism, as well as escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, have cut his business by nearly 40 percent the past few months.

Although he says that won't improve with war, India must protect itself, and much like the U.S. did after September 11, he urged the government to pursue the terrorists who attacked Parliament. These terrorists, India claims, have found refuge and support on Pakistani soil.

Under international pressure, Pakistan arrested more than 100 Islamic militants the past week, including the leaders of the two Kashmiri militant groups India claims were behind the December 13 attack. A step in the right direction, says India, but not enough.

PREM SHANKAR JHA, POLITICAL ANALYST: India has leaders, the extremist officials of these (UNINTELLIGIBLE) while cautiously (UNINTELLIGIBLE) them. The kind of overboard praise for these steps I hear from President Bush and Mr. Tony Blair to me is just absurd.

RESSA: The United States and Great Britain are asking both nuclear nations to step back and avoid war, a message Tony Blair is expected to repeat when he arrives in New Delhi on Sunday.

(on camera): Still events may spiral out of the control of both India and Pakistan. Muslim extremist groups threaten more attacks in the coming days. Any attack during these tense times could trigger the confrontation both governments say they don't want.

Maria Ressa, CNN, New Delhi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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