India still `in the process' of protesting against Pak

India still `in the process' of protesting against Pak
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 20: More than a day after the Indian government claimed that two Pakistan Army Mushaq trainers had violated Indian airspace, no diplomatic move had been made in protest. New Delhi is still in the process of lodging a strong protest with Islamabad in this regard, according to the Ministry of External Affairs. It remained undecided whether the protest will be lodged here or by the Indian High Commissioner in Pakistan.

Instead, India today said it rejected Pakistan's claims that its planes had not violated Indian airspace in Jammu and Kashmir. ``Pakistan's claim is totally baseless as its two aircraft strayed across the Line of Control'', an External Affairs Ministry spokesman said.

The Sector Commander of the Chhamb area also lodged a protest with his Pakistani Rangers counterpart in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir over the air space violation.

While India played the wait game, Pakistan's PR machinery was already on the move. Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Riaz Ahmed Khan spoke to the media in Islamabad and denied that two aircraft had violated Indian airspace. The Mushaq aircraft, Khan said, were on routine training in the area and ``an official verification of the radar station'' revealed that they remained well within Pakistani territory. We reject these allegations as baseless''.

In this battle of words, the first round went to Pakistan, which dragged in the Russian nuclear fuel controversy and the Jammu and Kashmir ceasefire to paint India as the bad boy in the neighbourhood.

Khan said it was concerned over reports of shipment of nuclear fuel from Russia to India for its Tarapur nuclear reactors, saying it would help enhance India's nuclear capability. ``While India is allowed to import nuclear fuel, in contrast strict restrictions are being applied to Pakistan even for import equipment required for safety of its nuclear installations,'' Khan said.

The spokesman said Pakistan was concerned that Russia has agreed to supply large numbers of Sukhoi fighter aircraft and T-90 battle tanks to India. ``Such a massive shipment of weapons would widen the conventional balance in the region and would not help restoring peace in South Asia,'' he said.

Khan also came out against the peace initiative in Kashmir saying, it ``carried little credibility in the light of Indian Army's admission that its troops fired on peaceful demonstrators in Kashmir''.

``India's sincerity in settling for talks over Kashmir issue would be fully tested by whether or not it permitted the Hurriyat delegation to visit Pakistan for talks,'' he said.