India, Pakistan crank up war of words

Pakistan army chief General Qamar Bajwa, during a visit to the Line of Control on Friday, warned India against aggression, saying any misadventure would receive resolute response from his troops, reports Dawn online.
General Bajwa visited the LoC to review the state of preparedness and morale of the troops, a day after the National Security Committee authorised the armed forces to respond to any Indian aggression with full force. The top commander’s visit signalled the highest level of preparedness to the adversary.
Speaking to the troops on the frontlines in Chirikot and Bagsar sectors, General Bajwa said, ‘Pakistan is a peace-loving country but we will not be intimidated or coerced. Any aggression or misadventure shall be paid back in same coin.’
Meanwhile, India will use ‘all instruments at its command’ to respond to Pakistan over its alleged role in a deadly bombing in Kashmir, a government minister said on Friday, hours after Islamabad warned it would respond with ‘full force’ if attacked, reports Reuters.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, who faces a general election by May, has said he has given a free hand to security forces to avenge the killings in Kashmir.
‘India will exercise all instruments at its command, whether it is diplomatic or otherwise,’ finance minister Arun Jaitley said in New Delhi. ‘India has all options. You need not exhaust all options on day one. This is not a one-week battle. It’s to be undertaken in various forms.’
Referring to Islamabad’s alleged support for Islamist militant groups, he added, ‘I think Pakistan is riding a tiger on this issue, and a tiger never spares its own rider.’
Pakistan said on Friday it had seized Jaish’s headquarters in a southern district of Punjab province bordering India.
Jaish, a jihadist group that seeks the independence of all of Kashmir from India, has offices and infrastructure in Pakistan where its leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, is based.
Authorities had taken over Jaish’s headquarters in Bahawalpur and appointed an administrator to look after its affairs, a government statement said. It said the headquarters and an attached seminary has 600 students and 70 teachers.
Pakistan’s military is conducting court-martial proceedings against two senior officers on charges of espionage, a spokesman said on Friday, without giving details.
‘Army Chief has ordered their court martial,’ Major General Asif Ghafoor, the military’s main spokesman, told a news conference, adding that the two were individual cases.
He gave no details on the identity or rank of the officers nor what country or organsation they were alleged to be spying for, but said, ‘There is no network as such.’
Separately, Ghafoor also said a former head of Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence, General Asad Durrani, was found guilty of violating the military’s code of conduct.
Durrani was facing an army’s inquiry for co-authoring a book with AS Dulat, a former chief of arch-rival India’s spy agency Research and Analysis Wing.
‘Spy Chronicles’, published last summer, stirred controversy on a range of issues, notably the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad in 2011.
Durrani has been stripped of his pension and other benefits as a retired officer, Ghafoor said.
More than 100 separatists in Kashmir were detained in overnight raids, police officials said on Saturday, as part of a crackdown on groups that might cause trouble ahead of nationwide elections set to be held by May.
The move comes days after a suicide car bombing killed at least 40 Indian security personnel on Feb 14. The Indian government has warned that it will use all options in its power to avenge the attack 
claimed by Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed.
‘The arrival of more troops and the arrests of leaders and activists of separatist groups is part of an election exercise undertaken to ensure free and fair elections,’ said one senior police official in the state.
Prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party is set to seek re-election in nationwide polls that are due to be held by May.
‘Anti-election campaigns will not be allowed and separatists will be detained to ensure free, fair and transparent elections in the state,’ the police official said.
Last week’s attack has also raised tensions between nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan, that both claim Kashmir in full but rule it in part. India blames Pakistan for harbouring militant groups operating in Kashmir. Pakistan has repeatedly denied the allegation.
Following the attack, India retaliated by removing any trade privileges offered to Pakistan, and it is now preparing to send as many as ten thousand additional troops to the contested area, according to a letter from the country’s home ministry seen by Reuters.
‘India will exercise all instruments at its command, whether it is diplomatic or otherwise,’ India’s finance minister Arun Jaitley said in New Delhi late on Friday. ‘This isn’t a one-week battle. It’s to be undertaken in various forms.’
Islamabad in turn has warned it would respond with ‘full force’ if attacked.
The overnight arrests in the state included those of many senior members of Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamic organisation that wants Kashmir to be independent from India.
The arrests led to violent scenes in parts of Kashmir, with stone-throwing protestors met by police firing tear gas.
JeI’s leader, Abdul Hamid Fayaz and Yasin Malik, the head of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front that wants independence from both India and Pakistan, were among those detained.
A spokesman for India’s home ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the arrests or troop deployments.
Next week India’s Supreme Court is also expected to hear a petition attempting to remove an article in the country’s constitution that prevents non-residents from moving to Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian state that contains Muslim-majority Kashmir. If passed it could further escalate tensions in the region.
A spokesman for JeI said the arrests of its members were a ‘well designed ploy,’ ahead of any such ruling.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net