Pakistan deploys fresh troops along LoC: Report

Amidst rising tensions with India, Pakistan has moved fresh Army troops to the Line of Control in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the international border with India to protect "vital points" along the frontier, a media report said on Friday.

The defence department declined to give details of fresh troop movements but did not deny reports that Pakistan was moving a number of new brigades to the frontier in the Lahore sector, the Daily Times newspaper reported quoting sources.

The forces were deployed along the LoC and the international border yesterday to protect vital points, the sources said.

The Pakistan Army's Brigade has been moved to forward areas in Lahore and army's 3rd Armoured Brigade, normally held in reserve, has been moved to Jhelum, the defence sources said claiming that there was a heavy concentration of Indian troops on the border.

The Pakistan Army's 10th and 11th Divisions have also been put on high alert and these forces have been stationed in areas facing Rajouri and Poonch sectors of Kashmir.

There have also been reports in the Pakistani media that the Pakistan Air Force is in a state of high alert and was conducting aerial surveillance of the Chashma power plant and other sensitive sites amidst fears of a possible surgical strike by India in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks.

In recent public comments, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh have both ruled out a war between the two countries. India has been asking Pakistan to crack down on elements in the country which were linked to the Mumbai attacks that killed over 180 people.

Pakistan has said it is waiting for India to provide evidence to take forward its probe into the Mumbai incident.

India should not underestimate our might: Pakistan

Amid a war of words with India over the Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistan has said its armed forces were fully capable of 'thwarting any aggression from the east' and New Delhi should not underestimate its military might.

India should not underestimate Pakistan's military power because it is 'capable of thwarting any aggression from the east', President Asif Ali Zardari said at a meeting with Gen Tariq Majid, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, in Islamabad on Tuesday night.

Majid told the President that the armed forces were fully capable of meeting any eventuality on the eastern front, Dawn News channel said.

Separately, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said while the operational preparedness of the armed forces was at an 'optimal level', both Pakistan and India cannot afford tension along their border.

'Nobody wants tensions on the borders and we are moving responsibly and with caution,' Gilani told media persons on the sidelines of an official ceremony in Islamabad.

The nation and the army are united to defend the country and its territorial integrity, he added.

'The government is aware of the situation in the region and will act as things move,' Gilani said.

During a meeting with Shahid Malik, Pakistan's High Commissioner to India, Zardari said Islamabad wants good relations with New Delhi but 'on the basis of sovereign equality'.

Instrument of surrender by Pak- Original copy - IndoPak war 1971

India - Centre rushes Army chief to Siachen

In view of the heightening tension with Pakistan, the central government on Tuesday rushed Army chief General Deepak Kapoor to Siachen Glacier and forward areas of Jammu and Kashmir to check the operational preparedness of the troops.

Government sources told PTI in New Delhi that General Kapoor left for Siachen Glacier on Tuesday morning and will be there for a day to interact with unit commanders and senior officers before returning to New Delhi after taking stock of the situation.

Gen Kapoor would also visit some of the remote areas in Jammu and Kashmir along the borders with Pakistan to interact with the troops posted there, the sources said.

His sudden trip to the forward areas comes at a time when the government has stated that it is not ruling out any option in its fight against terrorism emanating from Pakistani soil in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh  and some senior ministers had deliberations with the armed forces' top brass at the PMO in South Block, following which it is believed that Defence Minister A K Antony directed that all leave to military personnel be cancelled till April next year in view of the situation along the borders.

Since the Mumbai carnage, Army units along the borders with Pakistan have been maintaining a close vigil.

Some of IAF fighter aircraft squadrons in bases in forward areas have been on a 'cockpit alert' under which the force remains ready for military operations.

Taliban pledges support to Pak in war against India

Hunted by the United States and NATO forces for committing acts of terror in Afghanistan, the Taliban on Tuesday said they would back the Pakistan Army by deploying hundreds of suicide bombers in case of any military action with India.

Claiming that 'thousands of our well-armed militants are ready to fight alongside the army if any war is imposed on Pakistan', chief of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud, told The News daily by phone from an undisclosed location.

Hundreds of would-be bombers had been 'given suicide jackets and explosive-laden vehicles for protection of the border in case of any aggression by the Indian forces', he said.

'The time had come, to wage a real jihad that the Taliban had been waiting for,' Mehsud, for whom the Pakistani and US forces are on the look out claimed.

'We know very well that the visible and invisible enemies of the country have been planning to weaken this lone Islamic nuclear power. But the mujahideen will foil all such nefarious designs of our enemies,' he said.

This is for the first time Mehsud has admitted that Taliban has marshalled thousands of fighters close to the Afghan-Pak border and where Pakistani army has launched a major operation to flush them out. 

Mehsud said people might question how the Taliban would fight alongside the Pakistan Army when the militants had been fighting the force for a long time.

'Therefore, I want to make it clear that the army was acting otherwise (in the past). But now it would fight for the protection and survival of the country, which is why we will support them,' Mehsud said.

Mehsud, who was accused by former President Pervez Musharraf of masterminding the assassination of Pakistan People's Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto in December last year, significantly said the Taliban would defend the country's frontier with Afghanistan in the event of hostilities with India.

He said he wanted to 'assure the nation, government and army that they should not worry about Pakistan's western borders with Afghanistan' as 'thousands of his armed fighters had already been deployed to safeguard the strategically important frontier'.

Taliban fighters are ready to fight under the army's command, he said, but remarked it would be better for the military to 'give them a separate sector or specify special targets for the militants'.

Tensions have escalated in the region after India blamed Pakistan-elements for the Mumbai terror attacks, which killed over 180 people. India has asked Pakistan to take action against elements, including the Lashkar-e-Tayiba terror group. 

Though India has said war is not an option, Pakistan's top leaders, including Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, have said the country is prepared to face any aggression on the eastern border. Several Taliban commanders have pledged their support to the Pakistan Army in the event of hostilities with India. 

LTTE Rebels say 60 Sri Lankan soldiers killed, Government denies

Tamil Tiger rebels killed 60 Sri Lankan troops advancing towards their de facto capital, a pro-rebel report said, but the government denied on Sunday that many soldiers had died.

The insurgents struck as the soldiers were preparing an assault in Iranamadu village, just south of the guerrilla headquarters of Kilinochchi, and forced the troops to retreat from recently seized territory, the rebel-affiliated TamilNet Web site reported late on Saturday.

The guerrillas recovered 12 bodies of Sri Lankan soldiers, and 150 other troops were wounded, the report said. It did not provide the number of rebel losses.

Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said there were a ``few'' deaths and some soldiers were reported missing. But he dismissed the casualty figures reported by TamilNet and said soldiers were not in retreat.

``We have not pulled back, we are in the same locations,'' Nanayakkara said.

It was not possible to verify the rebel report because journalists are not allowed in the war zone.

Government forces have seized a large area of rebel-held territory in recent months and forced the Tigers into territory in the northeast.

However, troops have been locked in heavy battles at the edge of Kilinochchi for nearly two months amid heavy monsoon rains and stiff resistance by the rebels.

The guerrillas have claimed at least three major battle successes in recent weeks, the last being the reported killing of 170 soldiers near Kilinochchi on Tuesday.