Islamabad: The chief of Pakistan Air Force, Air Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir, has said
that the threat of war between India and Pakistan has receded as troops on both
sides of the border are "rapidly disengaging" after a year-long eyeball-to-eyeball
deployment.
"The potential threat of war is over but our Army and Air Force personnel still man
various important forward positions to deter any possible threat," he told local
daily 'Dawn'.
"The potential threat of a major armed conflict was averted between May and July
this year, when the situation had turned very serious. But then better sense
prevailed," he said, referring to the deployment of about one-million- strong troops
along the borders by both the countries after an attack
on the Indian Parliament in December 2001.
He discounted the possibility of a nuclear war between the two countries claiming
that Pakistan had the deterrence. "But then there is no doubt ... that both Pakistan
and India narrowly escaped a very serious outbreak of war," he said.
Mir said Pakistan had to bear some financial cost of taking our troops close to the
Indian border, but claimed India bore a higher cost in the withdrawal exercise.
Pakistan's Defence Spokesman Maj Gen Rashid Qureshi told the media on November 29
that Pakistan would "automatically" retaliate in a "dignified manner" any threat to
its security and accused India of carrying "unprovoked shelling and indiscriminate
firing" across the line of control (LoC).
To a question on withdrawal of troops by India, he said it has proved "our stance
that the Kashmir issue could not be solved through force," rather India should sit
on the negotiating table with Pakistan.
He alleged it was India which had posed threats to Pakistan by amassing her troops
along the borders and Pakistan would withdraw from the areas India would pull
out.
He said that the agreement between Pakistan and India regarding giving prior
intimation to each other on the movements of troops or Air Force aircraft or any
other activity within in a certain limits along the borders is still intact.
PTI
