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About 3,000 militants planning
to cross LoC: Fernandes

Sujit Chatterjee & A K Dhar in New Delhi

Defence Minister George Fernandes on Tuesday said some 2,000 to 3,000 Al Qaeda, Taliban and other militants are waiting to cross from Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir into India under the cover of firing by Pakistani troops.

He said the Indian armed forces have been put on the "highest state of readiness."

"The situation along the border has been tense and remains tense. Troops are in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation," he told PTI in New Delhi.

Disclosing that the Pakistani forces have stepped up the pace of artillery shelling and mortar firing along the LoC in the last two days, Fernandes said the firing was aimed at providing cover to mercenaries trying to infiltrate into India.

The defence minister said for the first time since the 1999 Kargil conflict, Pakistani troops have resorted to shelling in Siachen-Kargil-Dras sector. He said this could be a "probing" manoeuvre to see how well Indian troops were entrenched in the area.

Dismissing Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's threat to take the fight into Indian territory if provoked, Fernandes said: "India is militarily so powerful and it is known to Pakistanis that they will be overwhelmed."

He termed Musharraf's threats as an "outward manifestation of his inner fears and frustrations."

Asserting that India will not succumb to any nuclear or missile threat, Fernandes told Pakistan it would be "foolish" for it to ever consider using nuclear weapons saying Islamabad should be conscious of the devastation an Indian retaliatory strike could create.

"Indian armed forces are in the highest state of readiness. Their morale is so high that the only question they are asking is when will you let us go?" Fernandes said in a wide-ranging interview.

Asked if missiles like short-range surface-to-surface 'Prithvi' and longer-range and intermediate range 'Agni' have been deployed, he said: "We are fully deployed. There is no area where we are not ready. We are deployed in strength."

PTI

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