A day after Pakistani Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani called for “de-escalation” of tension, Islamabad today added a fresh twist by asking New Delhi to “de-activate forward air bases” and put “ground forces to peacetime locations” if it wished to send a “positive signal.”This came from Pak Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureishi who read out a prepared statement in the Pakistan Foreign office televised in Pakistan.New Delhi, predictably, rejected this demand — viewed as “completely unreasonable” — as External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said there hasn’t been any escalation from India and, therefore, there’s no question of de-escalation. And that the military exercises on are routine in nature. Islamabad’s latest posturing also comes when Indian officials see their diplomatic efforts step into the next gear — getting the international community to lean on Pakistan for tangible “deliverables.” It’s a “long haul,” a top government source said, and one should not expect “quick and dramatic results”.Meanwhile, in an interview to CNN-IBN, Pak National Security Advisor Mahmud Ali Durrani said they were examining the letter written by Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested in the Mumbai attacks. Asked if he would admit that Kasab as well as some, or all, of the 10 terrorists could have been Pakistani, Durrani replied, “could be, could be. that’s all I will say as of now, while the investigations are still being completed”.Durrani said categorically that there had been no mobilisation of extra troops on the Pakistani side of the border and LoC in the past few weeks. Calling for calm, he appealed to India and Pakistan to work together to “remove the menace of terror” from the region.Pakistan’s fresh condition of deactivating forward bases comes a day after Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei met the entire political top brass and the military chief. Sources said Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi had indicated to Mukherjee during his telephonic conversation on Christmas that he wanted to visit Delhi but Mukherjee had politely refused and asked him to talk to his friends in Islamabad.Mukherjee, speaking in New Delhi, said, “We have not created any tension..first there should be escalation from Indian side, then the question of de-escalation will come. We have not escalated anything.” He said that in response to India’s demand that it should dismantle terrorist infrastructure, Pakistan was making an attempt “to divert attention and create tension”. And added: “I do feel still we should continue to put pressure diplomatically through international community to achieve our objectives”. The military-level contact took place today as the Director General of Military Operations of India and Pakistan talked over the hotline and emphasised on the need to refrain from military movements along the border. While the talk was a routine affair — it usually takes place once a week — the two sides discussed reports of troop build-up along the border. While the Pakistani side talked about the need to de-escalate the situation, the Indian DGMO, Lt Gen AS Sekhon, is learnt to have pointed out that there have been no troop movements by India along the border and hence no escalation in the situation after the 26/11 attacks.“The Pak side was told that we have not moved anything so how can we de-escalate?” a senior Army officer said, adding that the conversation was part of a routine procedure and both sides emphasised on the need to maintain normalcy on the borders. It is also learnt that India pointed to reports of troop movements within Pakistan and requested the neighboring country not to deploy them near the border areas to prevent any escalation. On Saturday, the Pakistani DGMO, talked to his Indian counterpart on the hotline in an unscheduled call, expressed concern about a troop build-up. He was told clearly by India that there have been no unusual movements by the Indian Army and an annual operational alert was on in certain areas, along Punjab and Rajasthan, information about which had already been shared with Islamabad.
