Tensions Mount Between India and Pakistan
India Accused of Violating Pakistani Airspace
Pressure, both political and military, has been mounting between the governments of India and Pakistan in the weeks since a Pakistani-based militant group called Lashkar-e-Toiba carried out an attack that left 179 people dead and nearly 300 injured in India's financial capital of Mumbai.
Initial Cooperation
Immediately following the attacks, India demanded that Pakistan round up approximately 40 suspected members of the LT that are presently inside Pakistan for extradition. Major powers such as the United Kingdom and the United States have vigorously supported India's demands and have each brought their own formidable diplomatic muscle to bear on Islamabad.
Pakistan, for its part, has agreed to assist the Indian government in its investigation of the attacks and has begun to detain a number of India's list of suspects. It has even started to arrest members of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, designated a front for the Lashker-e-Taiba terror group, and sealed its offices across the country.
Though Pakistan has recently argued that India has been reluctant to share enough information with Pakistani security officials in order to justify extradition of its citizens.
Cooperation Falling Apart
This evening, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari told Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) parliamentarians during a dinner at his home that Pakistan would not hand over any of its citizens to India. Should Zardari stick to his refusal, the Indian government will face considerable pressure from an outraged population to send its own military into Pakistan without the consent of Islamabad in order to apprehend those responsible for the Mumbai attacks; a move that would almost certainly lead to all out war.
In another development earlier today, Pakistani Air Force officials accused India of violating its airspace with warplanes. Pakistani Air Force officials have said that the transgression was inadvertent; that they have already confirmed the incident with the Indian military and that there is no cause for alarm.
Though the Times of India has reported that "highly placed sources" inside the Indian Air Force have denied that any such incident ever occurred in the first place.
Cause for Alarm?
While the violation-of-airspace accusation would not appear at first glance to be anything to worry about, especially since the formal Pakistani statement did say that there was 'no cause for alarm', history tells a different story.
For the last several years, the Indian military has taken extensive steps to ensure that their aircraft do not approach Pakistani airspace during exercises. That is because a similar incident occurred during the 1999 Kargil Conflict, in which two Indian planes were shot down over the disputed Kashmir region after Pakistan claimed the planes had entered its airspace. India has always maintained that the planes were flying within Indian airspace when they were shot down.
High Level Hoax
According to Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, Pakistani President Zardari received a call on November 28th, barely hours after Indian forces had secured the last of the attack sites, from a person claiming to be India's Foreign Minister.
The caller had threatened to go to war over the Mumbai attacks if Pakistan failed to comply with India's requests.
India's Minister for External Affairs, Pranab Kumar Mukherjee, has denied ever making such a call.
Wajid Shamsul Hassan, Pakistan's senior envoy to Britain, confirmed not only that the threat was taken seriously, but also that Pakistani defences were placed on highest alert. The episode triggered intense international diplomacy, with some leaders fearing the two nuclear powers could slip into accidental war, Dawn said.
Tempers are running hot and the two nuclear powers have already fought three wars in the six decades that have passed since each nation gained independence from Britain. The last thing the situation needed was a provocative prank caller.
Combined with Pakistan’s president refusing to extradite any Pakistani citizens, claims of airspace being violated and an outraged Indian population urging its government to take unilateral military action against targets inside Pakistan, It would seem that a buildup is underway towards a fourth war between India and Pakistan.
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