Pakistan has been battling militants entrenched in pockets of its northwest for years. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
ISLAMABAD - PAKISTAN risks a rise in terrorist activity if it lets tensions with India divert its attention and troops away from the fight against Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants along its northwest border with Afghanistan, leading Pakistani newspapers warned Sunday.
Editorials in some of the Muslim nation's biggest dailies came after reports that the army was redeploying thousands of troops away from the northwest toward the eastern border with India following last month's attacks in Mumbai, which India blames on Pakistani militants. Islamabad also has restricted military leave, adding to fears of a fourth war between the nuclear-armed rivals.
Pakistan 'just cannot afford to redeploy any large number of its troops on the eastern border, leaving the 'wild' west in a free fall,' Dawn newspaper, a leading English-language paper, wrote in an editorial.
'Isn't that the area where the world's best intelligence says the extremist militants are holed up in significant numbers and planning to strike targets everywhere? They cannot be allowed a breather at a time when military operations are ongoing to clear the area of their roguish presence.'
Both India and Pakistan insist they do not want war, but tensions have repeatedly spiked since the three-day November siege of Mumbai that killed 164 people. India blames the attack on banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. Pakistan has detained some alleged masterminds and clamped down on a charity alleged linked to Lashkar, but it has also demanded that India back up its claim with evidence.
Pakistan has been battling militants entrenched in pockets of its northwest for years. It has deployed more than 100,000 troops in the region, which includes the semi-autonomous tribal areas where Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have flourished. The military is engaged in two major offensives in the northwest, one covering the Bajur and Mohmand tribal regions and the other in the Swat Valley.
Most analysts say war is unlikely because both India and Pakistan have too much to lose, but some speculate the Mumbai attackers sought to distract Pakistan from its troubles along the Afghan frontier.
The Daily Times, another major English-language paper, urged Pakistan to avoid that trap. 'Moving partially or fully out of the tribal areas will leave the fight against the terrorists unfinished,' it wrote.
Daily Jang, a major Urdu-language newspaper, put the onus on the United States, which considers Pakistan a critical ally in its efforts to stem the growing Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and which has sent envoys to South Asia to try to defuse tensions.
'In this situation, if Pakistan moves even a small number of troops from tribal areas to eastern border, it will certainly have negative effect on war on terror,' the paper wrote. 'It is in the interest of America to stop India from making situation worse, so that Pakistan is not forced to withdraw all of its troops from tribal areas as a last resort.'
Two Pakistani intelligence officials - requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation - said on Friday that elements of the army's 14th Infantry Division were being redeployed from Waziristan in the northwest to Kasur and Sialkot, towns close to India.
Witnesses reported seeing long convoys carrying troops and equipment toward India on Thursday and Friday.
Another intelligence official said on Saturday that up to 1,300 troops had also been pulled out of the Bajur region. They were heading to a large base back from the Afghan border, said the official, also speaking on condition of anonymity. Their final destination was not immediately known.
The army has refused comment on any troop movements, but a senior Pakistani security official Friday denied that soldiers were being deployed to the Indian border.
Pakistan has said it would not launch a first strike, but its troop redeployment was seen as an indication that it will retaliate if India tries to take out militant targets on Pakistani soil.
Pakistan has witnessed scores of suicide bombings in the past two years, and the leaders of its young civilian government have repeatedly reminded the world that they understand the threat.
'We ourselves have accepted that we have a cancer,' said Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, who marked the one-year anniversary of the assassinatin of his wife, ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, in a gun-and-suicide bomb attack blamed on terrorists.
Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Saturday that it was unfortunate that a 'sort of war hysteria' has been created in Pakistan.
Pakistan and India have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947, two over Kashmir, a majority Muslim region in the Himalayas claimed by both countries. -- AP
