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Subscribe to RSSNEW DELHI -- India's army chief accused Pakistan on Monday of detailed planning of an attack along Kashmir's de factor border last week in which two soldiers were killed and said India reserved the right to retaliate.
The comments, which came as public anger mounts over the decapitation of one of the slain soldiers, appear certain to further inflame tensions between the nuclear-armed enemies.
Last week's fighting was the worst outbreak of violence in Kashmir, the Himalayan region both nations claim, since the two sides agreed a cease-fire nine years ago. Indian and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.
Army Chief General Bikram Singh was speaking just hours before local commanders were to meet at the border to identify ways of reducing tensions and avoiding further clashes.
"The attack on January 8 was premeditated, a pre-planned activity. Such an operation requires planning, detailed reconnaissance," Singh told a news conference in New Delhi.
He said India reserved the right to retaliate against provocative acts on the border at a time and place of its choosing.
"I expect all my commanders at the Line of Control to be both aggressive and offensive in the face of provocation and fire," he said.
Protesters in India express outrage at Pakistan as India's army pays tribute to the two soldiers killed on the military control line of Kashmir. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
Both armies have lost two soldiers each in fighting along parts of 460-mile cease-fire line this month. One of the Indians was decapitated, New Delhi said, inflaming tempers in the country and prompting his family to start a hunger strike demanding that the severed head be brought back.
Pakistan has termed the Indian allegations as propaganda and blamed it for violations on the cease-fire line.
Islamabad accused Indian soldiers of entering its territory and killing a soldier on Jan 6. India said Pakistani soldiers intruded about 600 yards into its territory two days later and killed two Indian soldiers on patrol, the attack Singh was referring to.
'Gruesome act'
Pakistan said one of its soldiers was killed in further fighting on Thursday.
Singh said the beheading was a "gruesome act". He said a strong protest had been lodged with Pakistani authorities through diplomatic channels.
Additional reporting by Satarupa Bhattacharjya.
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Nuclear-armed rivals trade barbs over 'barbaric' cross-border attacks
From alcohol to kites: An A to Z guide to the 'Islamic Republic of Banistan'
Pakistan's Generation Y battles to shape country's future
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Leave a Comment:
Muslims vs. the rest of us.
You have part of it correct !!
If it is not Pakistan vs India, then it is MUSLIMS vs Hindu. It is another conflict that will never end. The heart and sole of the fight. Is for control of the KIBER PASS. Even the British could not hold that area when they were there.
please India, do us a FAVOR and JUST DO IT
Please India, wipe them off the map.
Man, I should open a foreign flag shop in Pakistan, cause I guarantee they're all looking where to buy an Indian flag right now.
Push the button, India.
Give it a rest, you forgot then rape the entire world with your bus thugs.
What all of you are forgetting is violence just begets more violence! Let one nation start out using nuclear weapons and I can assure you, in the end, it will draw the entire world into the conflict and then it's 'light's out' for everyone but the Cockroaches!
@bob1/28 - You really need to learn some geography. The Khyber Pass is between Afghanistan and Pakistan and is not located anywhere near the Kashmir region. The Khyber Pass has absolutely nothing to do with the dispute between Pakistan and India over Kashmir. The battle between India and Pakistan for the Kashmir region has absolutely nothing to do with control of the Khyber Pass. It is a simple territorial dispute fueled by tribal clashes and religious hatred between the Muslims in Pakistan controlled part of Kashmir and the Hindus in the India controlled portion. There is a small Buddhist population in the region as well but they are in the India controlled region and not a real player in the fighting.
Pakistan has 120 "LACED" Plutonium warheads.
I wonder what India has.
The world could do without the Billion + people living there.
Of course tradewinds and ocean currents would bring us the radiation cloud.
And there is always the chance that the radiation would create Super Powered Terrorist.
The sad truth is that the general populations of both countries are ignorant of what the consequences of a nuclear exchange entails. Both sides are guilty of celebrating the "achievement" of becoming a nuclear power. As far as both general populations in the area are concerned, nukes are just another really big bomb. The lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are going on 70 years old. It may take another demonstration of the horrendous effects of a nuclear strike to get the jingoists on both sides to cool the rhetoric and sabre rattling.
Have at it you idiots. That area of the world needs depopulating.
Yeah, I'm surprised these idiots haven't nuked each other yet. But the US isn't any better, especially if we had kept electing stupid Republicans that like to start wars.
I think both sides have started their fair share of wars. President Kennedy(D) began the war in Viet Nam, President Truman (D) committed troops to the war in Korea. FDR worked hard to get the US involved in the War in Europe before Japan attacked and he was a Democrat.
Of course there was President Reagan(R) who committed troops to Lebanon where the Marines were killed by a truck bomb. The list goes on. BOTH parties have committed troops to war.
Blaming one party is a fools game.
If Dubya was still in power we would have been at war ...again...already....
Maybe, but at least we wouldn't have this abomination of a health care law.
@ctviking -
You're right, we wouldn't have affordable health care. We would have a couple more wars funded on a credit card. All under the guise of debt doesn't matter.
dislike of a president causes people to make very stupid statements. As made by 2little
@onesoul
wars end. But we're now stuck with this horrible health care law forever.
We can go back and forth forever over this... At least the Affordable Healthcare is actually doing something positive for our society. Whereas, these unfunded wars didn't do anything for the US except bury us in debt.
Yeah onesoul... everything medical has gone up in 2013 so that we can pay for those who can't or won't They just use the ER for family health-care. Great deal, eh what?
yes "affordable" care is a wonderful benefit. forced consumerism of an industry that has proven to be out of control is awesome. good for them - the healthcare industry that is. we are all signed up...except our glorious benefactors. it will be as affordable as the clean air act was "clean". don't laud the acheivements of this administration. how has the closing of guantanamo been so far, oh wait. how about the reigning in of the patriot act, oh wait. stopping the misuse of executive orders, errrr. keep thinking righty v lefty and we are damned. bush was horrible, obama is bad and may soon turn out horrible. he's got another term to really turn it out.
Bush was bad, Obama is worse
Viking............ you got that right
You have a strange sense of proportion.
Two wars on a credit card...Medicare Part D giveaway to big pharma on a credit card and tax breaks for the wealthy on a credit card...oh yea, Obama's much worse...NOT!
Wallace J.::::: Stupid
Your head needs some intense exam and may be a brain surgery. Looks like you are one
blood trusty gun loving stupid
Wipe 'em out India!
What is it with these dirtbags beheading people? It's not enough that they murder, they have to defile and desecrate the dead? Disgusting. I hope India takes it upon themselves to make use of their nuclear weapons against those terrorist aiding and abetting pieces of s&*^ since the US won't. My thinking is - if one side fails to acknowledge the Geneva Conventions, why must the other side continue to abide by them? If they want to live by the motto of "do unto others," I'm sure we can wrangle up some mercenaries who wouldn't mind inflicting torture on these barbarians.
The heads are cut off while they are alive.
Threaten to send over a fleet of your "Rapemobiles".
A WAR between Hindu's and Radical Muslims.
Ray, Yours is the most egregious misuse of the commma I have ever seen. (Hindu's.) Hindus just didn't look right to you, I guess.
Ummm, it's not a comma. It' an apostrophe.
Umm, it's not a commma.
It's NOT a tumor!
Every time there is a hope for peace, some evil people do everything to prolong the war. I see the same efforts made by them in US Congress.
They keep funding our invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Congress does not commit troops. If you really want to bring the troops home, pressure the President.
What is so evil about prolonging conflicts that everybody agrees have no military solution? Simple: people die and money is wasted. Cutting off the flow of money into these conflicts FORCES a diplomatic solution and stops the bleeding.
Islamist terrorism cannot be stopped by an outside military force alone. There are reasons why it has become a wide spread problem, and some of these reasons stem from US foreign policy mistakes.
Please define "Islamo-fascism"
Well, apparently the current - mostly military - approach to fighting Islamic terrorism is not working, because there are more of them than ever. Just look at Afghanistan and Iraq - after more than a decade of war, thousands of dead US and NATO soldiers, several trillions of dollars flushed down the toilet, the Islamic terrorism is stronger than before. Iraq under Saddam was largely free from Islamic fighters, now it is a hotbed of such terrorism. If you are so smart, what is the answer?
As to the Palestinian - Israeli conflict, that is primarily a nationalistic and territorial matter, where both sides are equally guilty of prolonging it. Here again cutting off aid to Israel would help in solving it by diplomacy. Israel has no incentive to settle with a big attack dog (US) always ready to bail them out.
We should not spend a penny on any of those conflicts. Let the locals settle among themselves.
Good guess....but wrong. If you want the troops home, pressure Congress to cut off funding...they'll come home.
"Nuclear-Armed India warns...." is a good way to get readers attention.
Op, op op op op, oppan Indian Style.
The solution to Pakistan is India. Let India wipe the floor with Pakistan and call it a day. Im sure the terrorists in Pakistan would eventually have their hands full with India and that would give the US somewhat of a break inside of Afghanistan.
What ever the case might be, I don't wish war on anyone but Pakistan has been one of those places where cowards with AK-47 hideout and make plans to kill. Maybe if these people see a few atomic weapons going off and have to feel the suffering they cause, they may modify their attitude of killing.
We want a war, we want a war, we want a war!
No, we want people who decapitate people, depreciate people, intimidate people, to finally learn the error of their ways. If it takes war for Pakistan to understand how wrong headed they are, then that is on Pakistan. They have a choice, they go for peace and stick to it, or they bring war on themselves.
No sane person wants war.. Then again, no sane person wants to live in a place filled with thugs that shoot children who speak their mind.
If no sane person wants war, then how did the U.S. enter the present wars we are in without provocation?
So, our leadership is insane?
Who do you vote for? Who did you vote for?
This is terrific news! Let 'em go at each other.
Just keep the U.S. out of it!
Don't really care for either country, but if I had to give odds on a winner it would be to India. Their military is better equipped, better trained, and much better motivated.
You apparently only care for zionist israel.
Remember this comment you made a while back? This article has nothing to do with Israel and I made no comments here regarding such. So where do you get off making a verbal attack against me like that? Go take your hate mongering of Israel elsewhere as you are entirely off topic and unwarranted here.
Now you know what is like when someone picks on you, the very same way you always picked on me.
A taste of your own medicine I would say.
Sorry you think you're being picked on. This is not the neighborhood school yard. It is a forum for adults. Pay more attention to what you say to people and how you say things and you might notice a difference in the way you are treated. In other words, try treating others as you would expect to be treated. I still stand by my statement above. In this instance, I never said anything to you personally, nor did I say anything regarding Israel. I merely responded to your attempt at an insulting comment directed at me personally regarding your negative views of me. If you had left me alone, I would most likely have done the same. Either way, as I said above, your comment was way off topic and thus totally unwarranted.
As for a taste of my own medicine? Sorry, but you did not even come close! Have a good evening.
When I commented the tree destroyed in Australia: "trees withers, no big deal" I merely expressed my view andit wasn't addressing to anyone. Yet you attacked me as no respect for other culture.
I also stand by my statement above.
Henrich, I tell you what. I propose that I will leave you alone if you agree to do the same. Bickering like this is pointless and counterproductive. You lay off the snide comments and I will avoid doing it as well. First one to break it means all bets are off. This includes any comments directly or indirectly. I'm willing if you are. We both already know which areas we do not agree on. So let's just try to agree to disagree. So what do you say?
Agree.
I guess I'm not stupid enough to be a Newsvine poster.
Nope, you qualify. Go right ahead.
Isn't it pathetic that India is so outraged by the beheading of one of its military members. Where was the outrage when American troops and Iraqi civilians were being beheaded daily?
Another religious killing...Religion is the root of all evil.....all this praying to god or allah or who ever is just getting more people dead. think for yourself. Personally i don't care if all these religious fanatics kill each other....would be good for the world. Rid the world of all crazy religions
the ANTI WAR crowd won 4 years ago and the killing continues.
They also happen to be the atheist crowd.
God haters keep the bombs falling and celebrate deaths as merit badges on Obama's bird-like chest.
Always good to hear from the American Taliban.
We should have been with India from the begining, Pakistan is nothing but murdering, back stabbing,lying country whose only concern is for destabilization so they can be supreme. I know,I know this could describe any country...but they have stole, lied and kill US citizens just as they have with the Indian`s. Destory Pakistan and take a bite out of terrorism....
Pakistan is a country ruled by Radical Muslims
vocal and powerful, minority of Muslims actively seek worldwide Sharia and global Islamic domination.
Extremists will use violent means against any population they view as obstacles to the establishment of Islamic rule even if they are Muslim by expanding the criteria by which one can be considered an infidel or heretic.
Two nations of radicals, intolerant of anyone else, threatening each other like so many grade school kids, except they both have nukes. I would imagine that whole area could be made uninhabitable and not many people in the rest of the world would ever realize it. Just let them go at it, then when Iran jumps in to help Pakistan, we can get Russia or Frane to nuke them and be done with the whole region.
India and Pakistan should drop Nukes on each other, both countries have way too many people anyway. India with their Muslims and a thousand Gods is just as bad as pakistan. Both countries are nothing more than Filthy pig pens.
Um...Tarzan? India is predominantly Hindu...not Muslim.
Pakistan would have far fewer problems if they would give up all their nukes.
Dear India;
Please conquer Pakistan and turn the whole place into more phone support centers. While the callers may not appreciate it, the rest of the world would be so much better off without Pakistan.
The World
Indigo.....
That is so blindingly, stereotypically RACIST. It's no WONDER the whole of the Middle East HATES the United States. You're a DOO$H.
Jim: Do I look like I care?
And no, "the whole of the Middle East" (nice racist generalization on your part) HATES the United States because we support Israel and are a predominately Christian nation (ever heard of "The Crusades"? Here's a brief recap: Knights, sanctioned by The Church, rode out and indiscriminately slaughtered every and any muslim they happened across, "to keep the holy lands open for pilgrims".) And when you kill a muslim, another muslim must kill the killer... we have an unend-able cycle of bloodshed that will not stop until either Christianity or Islam is gone from the face of the earth.
Now who's the douche? Might even want to study spelling while you're at it.
While taking the stereotyper to task you did the same thing he did Indigo. No tall Muslims hate the USA. In Fact we are well liked in Iran and Libya among other nations. Also mainstream Muslims are not out to kill Christians and in fact live side-by-side with them in many nations.
It is the radicals like Bin Laden who take Islam and twist it into something vile and use it as an excuse to brandish their hate about as a weapon. It is much the same as the discriminatory groups in Christianity operate. The mainstream who are religious but do not follow their religion fanatically are not the ones out advocating for killing Christians, Muslims, banning Gay marriage, etc. It is the fanatics that are, those that are completely blinded by their faith and see nothing else and accept no other points of view. To sum it up in one word their brand of their specific religions is one of intolerance.
The problem is more widespread in Islam though because those intolerant and radical individuals usually are promoted into very powerful positions by the vocal minority while the silent majority does everything they can to not rock the boat; although this ideology is starting to lose its grasp over the entire region.
As with all issues with religion, the religion itself is not to blame but it is the people who use their religion incorrectly, as a means of control of manipulation, that are causing all of the problems and the problem with this is that so long as religion exists there will be extremists; the two go hand in hand. There will always be those that think their religion gives them special privileges over someone who does not practice their religion or does not practice it as they themselves do. This is caused by the arrogance of many worshipers with such thoughts that a specific religion is a false religion or that a specific god is not the true god.
Until things such as these trivialities are overcome and religions accept the fact that not one religion was, is, nor will ever be the "true" religion no progress to fixing the Middle East can be made. This is a crucial step because much of the Middle East nonsense comes from Islamic inter-sect conflicts between different denominations but it is also required for Christians so that they understand that Christianity is also not the true religion and their god is not the true god.
That may never happen though as religion is by its nature a dictatorship, not a democracy. Those that control the religion wield powers most dictators only dream of and they will not throw it away by nullifying their religion's supposed legitimacy.
Geo: At least you picked up on the point I was making... Yes, I am aware "not all muslims hate [insert group here]" - I've even more than a few Islamic friends, though they are members of a very lax congregation - they don't even throw rocks at gay people ;-)
And The Crusades were no more a "misuse of religion" than Alkayduh (I refuse to spell it correctly out of contempt), or nearly any other blood shed in the name of faith.
geowil writes:
That's a demonstrable lie! Bin-Laden was tall and he hated the U.S.
As if Pakistan doesn't have enough on their plates without pulling this stunt. Good grief!
In the realm of American influence (what is left that Obama hasn't squandered), India is NOT Israel. India will NOT sit by, amidst American assurances of "We got this." like Isreal has in the past. If further provoked, India will, indeed retaliate and, rightfully so.
Considering the lengths that Pakistan has gone to prove they're no longer an ally of the United States (despite our current President's inability to acknowlege that fact), this could be JUST what the region needs to set right the shift in stability in the Middle East.
Good hunting.
Oh yea, Obama loves and respects Pakistan, which is why we coordinated with Pakistan so closely when we killed bin Laden...damn man.
Good! India needs some population control & the REST of the region needs more 'Glow-In-The-Dark' Head-Terrorist housing!!
War might help. Soon they will realize that there is no paradise other side of the war.