Pakistan warns west: we cannot fight al-Qaida if crisis escalates [View All]

[CHIMO]

Source: Guardian

Senior Pakistani intelligence officials have threatened to end military operations against Islamist militants along the country's Afghan border if India deploys troops on their eastern frontier.

In a rare briefing to senior local journalists, intelligence officials said the coming days would be "crucial" and threatened to pull out all the troops committed to the "war on terror" in the event of "an unwanted conflict" with India. "We will not leave a single troop on the western border if we are threatened by India," an official was reported as saying.

Pakistan currently has more than 100,000 soldiers engaged in operations in the semi-autonomous tribal zones where senior international militants connected to al-Qaida, local extremists and a significant proportion of the Taliban's leadership are thought to be based.

The Pakistani operations, largely funded by the United States, are seen by Nato commanders as vital to keep open supply lines to their troops in Afghanistan and to block, or at least hinder, movement by militants across the porous Afghan-Pakistan frontier.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/01/terrorism-pakistan-india-conflict

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Seems like before Obama can defuse Kashmir that others are throwing sand into the gears.