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Indian, Pakistani Military Leaders Discuss Deadly Border Clashes

Indian, Pakistani Military Leaders Discuss Deadly Border Clashes

By Aoun Sahi and Shashank Bengali, Los Angeles Times

ISLAMABAD — Senior Indian and Pakistani military officials on Tuesday held their first official discussions since violence erupted along their disputed border last week, resulting in 20 deaths.
Pakistan’s director of military operations and his Indian counterpart used a regularly scheduled hotline call to discuss tensions along the boundary in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, according to Pakistani military sources who declined to discuss details of the conversation.
“Our military official conveyed Pakistan’s concerns to the Indian side,” one Pakistani official said, requesting anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the talks.
The phone call contributed to a sense that the crisis along the so-called Line of Control was easing on a day that neither side reported new violence. Each nation blames the other for unprovoked cross-border attacks on Oct. 5, sending thousands of villagers fleeing artillery rounds, mortar shells and machine gun fire.
Pakistan has accused India of committing 50 violations of a decade-long ceasefire this month and of targeting civilians in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, a charge that India dismissed.
The mountainous region is divided between the two countries along the Line of Control, but claimed in its entirety by both. The clashes last week marked one of the most significant flare-ups in the long-running border war since a 2003 cease-fire.
On Monday, Pakistan sent a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accusing India of “deliberate and unprovoked violations of the cease-fire agreement” and asking the U.N. to intervene in the crisis. India on Tuesday rejected the letter as a ploy and said that there was “no place for third parties” in resolving the border dispute.
“India will not accept violence on the border or the Line of Control, or continued terrorism against our citizens,” foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin told reporters in New Delhi. “It is up to Pakistan to de-escalate the situation.”
Indian security forces would “respond appropriately to any attempts by Pakistan to undermine peace and tranquillity,” Akbaruddin said.
The election of a new government in New Delhi this year, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had raised hopes of a fresh start in India-Pakistan relations. But Modi’s government called off bilateral talks scheduled for August after a senior Pakistani diplomat held meetings with Indian Kashmiri separatists, accusing Islamabad of interfering in its domestic affairs.
Pakistan’s national security advisor, Sartaj Aziz, said the Indian military’s cross-border firing had also caused extensive injuries and property damage and distracted from the Pakistani army’s ongoing counter-terrorism operation in the restive North Waziristan tribal region.

AFP Photo/A Majeed

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Pakistan Struggles To Protect Historic City From Floods

Pakistan Struggles To Protect Historic City From Floods

By Zia Khan and Sunrita Sen, dpa

ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI — Pakistani authorities were struggling to protect the historic city of Multan from raging flood waters Friday, while in India-administered Kashmir, the focus turned from rescue to getting essential supplies to the thousands stranded or homeless.

Troops and rescue workers were evacuating people from Multan, Pakistan’s fifth-largest city, in Punjab province, as officials of the National Disaster Management Authority (DMA) warned rivers would remain flooded for another week.

The city has an estimated population of 10 million, and is known as a centre of the mystic Sufi branch of Islam, with numerous old mosques and bazaars.

Authorities in both India and Pakistan were struggling to cope with the devastation wrought by the floods and landslides brought on by heavy monsoon rains since Sept. 3.

Around 280 people have been killed in Pakistan’s Punjab and Pakistan-administered Kashmir region, DMA spokesman Ahmed Kamal said.

The death toll in India-administered Kashmir was last reported to be 216 but the toll was expected to rise.

On Friday, rescue workers reached Saddal village in Reasi district of India-administered Jammu and Kashmir state where a landslide had destroyed all 40 houses and buried the residents, NDTV news channel reported.

India’s armed forces and the National Disaster Response Force had so far evacuated over 130,000 people from flood-affected areas, federal Home Minister Rajnath Singh said at a press briefing in New Delhi.

More than 400 villages in the region had been impacted by the floods besides the state’s summer capital Srinagar.

“The orientation now is shifting from rescue to relief,” said Lieutenant General Subrata Saha, who was overseeing operations in Srinagar.

There were fears of outbreak of waterborne diseases due to the stagnant water and a shortage of clean drinking water, officials in Indian Kashmir said.

“We are preparing ourselves for diarrhea and measles which is common when people live in clusters,” Salim Rehman, director of Jammu and Kashmir state’s health department, was quoted as saying by Zee News television channel.

The flooding would continue for another week before starting to subside, Pakistan’s Disaster Management Authority spokesman Ahmed Kamal said.

Paksitan’s Finance Ministry said Thursday flooding might affect more than 5 million people.

Around 2 million people have been displaced in Pakistan’s Punjab and the southern province of Sindh, Kamal said.

Monsoon rains in the Himalayan region annually cause deaths and damage to infrastructure in Pakistan and India.

AFP Photo/Punit Paranjpe

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Troops Working To Rescue Stranded People In Kashmir

Troops Working To Rescue Stranded People In Kashmir

By Siddhartha Kumar, dpa

NEW DELHI — Indian troops stepped up rescue work Tuesday as the rain held off in Jammu and Kashmir state, but thousands were stranded in the worst floods in the region for 60 years.

State capital Srinagar was flooded by the Jhelum river and an estimated 400,000 people were stranded in the city and surrounding regions, broadcaster NDTV reported.

Disaster management agencies data showed that about 200 people had died since last week.

The toll included 27 killed in a landslide in Udhampur district.

“Only my husband and I have been rescued. Both my sons are left behind. My house was destroyed. I was stuck on the terrace for three days,” one Srinagar resident told CNN-IBN network.

“I am 60 years old and I have never seen such a situation here. This is really scary,” another resident added.

Thousands more were awaiting rescue teams and searching for their relatives.

By Tuesday evening, officials said the army and relief workers had rescued more than 42,000 people. Many teams were using boats in Srinagar, rescuing people from rooftops and terraces.

The army deployed 20,000 soldiers, while 61 helicopters and other aircraft were dropping relief supplies and transporting people.

“The Indian Army will not move back to the barracks until the last man is brought to safety,” army chief General Dalbir Singh said Monday.

Officials said the Jhelum River was receding in some areas, but water in the city’s Dal Lake was rising.

Road and communication links were cut off, making it difficult to reach stranded people.

The main highway linking the Kashmir valley to the rest of India was closed because of landslides, and could take about five days to be reopened, officials said.

Srinagar resident Sheikh Tariq, whose house was swept away in the floods, said his family was incommunicado.

“I have no idea how and where they are. The last call from them came three days ago. I am totally helpless,” he told NDTV from a university campus in Srinagar that has become an emergency refugee center.

AFP Photo/Punit Paranjpe

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