Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to mediate between the leaders of India and Pakistan and get them to meet face to face at an Asian security forum that opens Monday in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan.

Mr. Putin is expected to hold separate meetings in the Kazakh city of Almaty with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to discuss the crisis. 

General Musharraf has welcomed the Russian offer to mediate and said again that Pakistan will not start a war with India. However, Prime Minister Vajpayee says he has no plans to meet with the Pakistani president. He says there must first be a halt to attacks by Pakistan-based Islamic militants crossing into the Indian controlled part of Kashmir. The nuclear rivals have massed a million troops along their common border. 

Meanwhile Chinese President Jiang Zemin is also to hold separate consultations with the Indian and Pakistani leaders during the Asian summit. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage are also heading to the region to try to defuse tensions. 

Mr. Armitage is scheduled to visit the area this week. Mr. Rumsfeld is expected to arrive in the region soon afterward. Meanwhile, families of United Nations employees have started leaving Pakistan over fears war could break out. 

The United States, Britain, Israel and several other nations have also begun to pull staff out both countries and have urged their citizens not to go there. 

India's military buildup followed a series of terrorist incidents in Kashmir and in New Delhi for which it blames Pakistan. Pakistan has been looking for some sort of independent international presence at the Line of Control in Kashmir to verify whether militants are infiltrating into India as New Delhi claims. 

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The crisis between India and Pakistan has sparked international concern that a war might quickly escalate to a nuclear exchange. But there is little public concern in both countries about that prospect, and that appears to be due to a lack of public awareness of what nuclear weapons can do. 

It is not uncommon to hear people in Pakistan say "Nuke India" or Indians chant "Nuke Pakistan." 

Experts here say that, in the climate of deep hatred between the two countries, nuclear weapons have, in effect, been trivialized to the point that the unthinkable is actually contemplated. They say there is an almost total lack of education in both countries about the horrifying destruction a nuclear war would inflict on both sides. 

Estimates by U.S. defense officials are that 9-12 million people would be killed in a nuclear exchange between Pakistan and India. Whole cities would be wiped out and their areas uninhabitable for years to come. 

Pervez Hoodbhoy, a nuclear scientist and physics professor at Qaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, says people tend to think of a nuclear weapon just as another, bigger bomb. 

"I think that, fundamentally, there is a problem of ignorance," said Prof. Hoodbhoy. "And furthermore, this ignorance has been exacerbated by the fact that there has been a glorification of nuclear weapons here in Pakistan. The media have totally ignored what these nuclear weapons are about, what they can do. Instead, they have focussed upon them as being instruments of power, being things that you glorify." 

Professor Hoodbhoy says people in Pakistan seem to fatalistically accept the fact that such weapons would be used. "There is a deep fatalism that runs throughout the society," he went on. "There is a belief that somehow the stars have determined it, or it's written into fate itself. Add to all this the feeling that people will be rewarded in the hereafter and, particularly, with the people in the military. For them, dying is a matter of honor and perhaps necessity." 

Naseer Akhtar, a retired lieutenant general in the Pakistan Army, insists nuclear weapons would never be used. But he agrees that people have to be educated about the effects of nuclear war. 

"They haven't learned what the horrors of the nuclear war are, and they have to be educated. They're all an uneducated mass," said Gen. Akhtar. "We don't educate them in both the countries because then it becomes difficult for the government to handle such a situation. So education is the foremost thing. Because presently they [the military] have an excellent command and control system where the nuclear will never be used." 

But education is also needed at the official level, says Japanese Ambassador to Pakistan Sadaaki Numata. He says it is frightening to think that Pakistan and India have nuclear capabilities many times greater than the single bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The Japanese Government has been trying to get that message across in Islamabad and New Delhi. 

"We have been saying to the leaders of both Pakistan and India that, being the only country to have suffered from the indescribable devastation of nuclear weapons, we are genuinely concerned about an armed conflict between India and Pakistan escalating, and, perhaps, escalating into a nuclear war. That could mean the devastation of all. Yes, we have been conveying this concern," said Amb. Numata. 

But the unanswered question is, are the leaders in Islamabad and New Delhi listening? 

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Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage leaves Washington Tuesday for South Asia as part of a stepped-up U.S. diplomatic effort to defuse the military confrontation between India and Pakistan. Mr. Armitage will be followed to the region almost immediately by Defense Secretary Donald Rumseld. 

Mr. Armitage, a blunt-speaking former top Pentagon official, is due in Islamabad Thursday and goes to New Delhi Friday with specific ideas on how to bring the two nuclear-armed rivals back from the brink of full-scale war. 

At a briefing here, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said the first step in ratcheting-down the crisis should be action by Pakistan fulfilling its stated commitment to end the infiltration of militants across the "line of control" in Kashmir: 

"What we want to see is that action, because we think that's very important. And then some reciprocity on the side of the Indians so that the Pakistanis can visibly see that there is goodwill on both sides," he said. "And then we can look at possible confidence-building measures that both sides can take to continue a de-escalation and create an environment that is more conducive to the dialogue that we think is necessary to solve these problems." 

In preparation for his mission, Mr. Armitage spoke by telephone Monday with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who completed his own trouble-shooting mission to the region last week. 

In a pre-trip television interview, the deputy secretary also said he expects a briefing from Russian officials on the discussions President Vladimir Putin is having with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf at the Central Asian regional summit underway in Kazahkstan. 

Mr. Armitage welcomed a weekend comment by President Musharraf that "no sane individual" could think about starting a nuclear war. But Mr. Armitage also said that when large-scale hostilities erupt between such well-armed parties "reason and logic," as he put it, "seem to go out the window." 

He said India has a right to be aggrieved over acts of terror by Muslim extremists, yet as an emerging superpower, he said he hopes India can restrain itself and act responsibly. 

Mr. Armitage will be followed to the region next weekend by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, who added India and Pakistan to a Middle East trip as part of what Secretary of State Colin Powell described Monday as a "full-court diplomatic press" to ease the South Asia crisis. 

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has stepped up diplomatic efforts to try to defuse the crisis between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. The latest developments are taking place on the sidelines of a regional security summit of 16 Asian nations in Almaty, Kazakhstan. 

AP
Vladimir Putin

AP

 Earlier in the day Tuesday, Mr. Putin described relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors as "explosive" and a threat to security for the entire subcontinent.

 At the summit, both countries continued to blame each other for the tensions. Prime Minister Vajpayee said that Pakistan had reneged on a promise to curb cross-border raids by Islamic militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir. 

He said Mr. Musharraf promised in January not to allow any terrorist groups to use Pakistani territory. But, Mr. Vajpayee said, cross-border infiltration increased in the following months, and terrorist camps continue to exist in Pakistan. 

For his part, President Musharraf said the people of South Asia are paying a heavy price for what he called India's refusal to resolve the Kashmir issue. Mr. Musharraf said the dispute must be resolved in accordance with U.N. resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.

 The two countries have massed one million troops along their border since a December attack on the Indian parliament that New Delhi blames on Pakistan-based militants fighting for control of Indian-ruled Kashmir.

 Meanwhile, other diplomatic efforts are underway to persuade India and Pakistan to pull back from the brink of war. 

The United States is sending two high-level envoys to meet the Indian and Pakistani leaders. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan will meet with Russian President Putin in Moscow later this week to discuss the situation.

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Atal Behari Vajpayee

 Speaking to Indian reporters just before he led his delegation back to New Delhi, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said India would consider joint monitoring of the line of control with Pakistan.

 Mr. Vajpayee's surprise announcement came at the conclusion of a regional summit in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Leaders there were unable to get Mr. Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to hold direct talks.

 India says Pakistan must stop militants from infiltrating into Indian-administered Kashmir and dismantle militant camps in the part of Kashmir Pakistan controls, before any talks can take place. Pakistan denies providing the militants with anything beyond moral and diplomatic support. It asserts no infiltration takes place.

 Commodore Uday Bhaskar, the deputy director of New Delhi's Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis says India has proposed joint monitoring of the LOC before. Still, he says the prime minister's suggestion could be the beginning of an easing of tensions in the region.

 "I think the prime minister suggesting that there could be some kind a joint effort to look at the pattern of what is happening on either side of the LOC, presents a certain opening," he said, " I think, of dealing with a situation that until recently seemed intractable." 

In his remarks Wednesday, Mr. Vajpayee said it would not be practical for a third country to get involved in monitoring whether or not infiltration across the line of control is taking place, saying India and Pakistan can verify, themselves, whether or not infiltration has stopped.

 American Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage begins a visit to both countries on Thursday, starting a new diplomatic effort to move India and Pakistan back from the brink of war. Next week, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visits both countries, in a further effort to ease tensions. 

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Pakistan has expressed skepticism at an Indian proposal for joint patrols along the disputed Kashmir border, saying it doubts the plan would work. 

However, Islamabad stopped short of rejecting the proposal. Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday that joint patrolling is not a new idea. But, it said Pakistan would consider the proposal if India agrees to resume dialogue with Islamabad. 

Earlier Wednesday, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said New Delhi would consider joint monitoring of the disputed Kashmir border. Mr. Vajpayee said the two nuclear-armed nations could work together to patrol the so-called line of control that divides Kashmir to verify that Muslim militants are no longer crossing into Indian Kashmir to launch attacks against Indian security forces. 

Speaking to Indian reporters before leaving the regional security summit in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Mr. Vajpayee said it is neither practical nor necessary to get a third party involved in the monitoring process. Pakistan has suggested monitoring by the United States or the United Nations. 

Meanwhile, a U.S. State Department spokesman says Washington has detected signs that Pakistan is acting on President Pervez Musharraf's pledge to prevent Muslim militants from infiltrating into Indian Kashmir. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is traveling to the region for talks in Islamabad Thursday and New Delhi Friday. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is expected to visit the region next week. 

Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters. 

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Richard Armitage

 Speaking to reporters after his extensive discussions with President Musharraf, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said the Pakistani leader has told him he has stopped cross-border infiltration of militants into Kashmir. "The President of Pakistan has made it very clear that nothing is happening across the Line of Control [cease-fire line in Kashmir]," he said. "We are looking for that to hold over the longer run."

 India accuses Pakistan of sending militants across the disputed border in Kashmir to join an anti-India movement in the region. New Delhi says it will de-escalate tensions and resume dialogue after Pakistan stops such activities. 

Mr. Armitage says he also discussed with President Musharraf how to monitor infiltration of Islamic militants from Pakistan across the Kashmir border. "President Musharraf made it very clear to me that he wants to do everything which he can to avoid war, and I think that is a very good basis on which to proceed," he said.

 Mr. Armitage says the Pakistani leader has also promised not to initiate war with India. "President Musharraf has made it very clear that he is searching for peace," said Richard Armitage. "That he would not be the one to initiate war and I will be looking hopefully for the same type of assurances tomorrow in Delhi."

 The Deputy Secretary of State travels Friday to India. His visit to the region follows President Bush's appeal to Pakistani and Indian leaders to step back from the brink of war. 

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld plans to visit Islamabad and New Delhi next week to continue the peace efforts.

 Both Pakistan and India have deployed hundreds of thousands of soldiers along their border. Daily clashes between the two armies have killed scores of people in the past three weeks. 

The United States and Britain have strongly urged their citizens to leave India and Pakistan. They say the current situation in South Asia is dangerous. 

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Donald Rumsfeld

As he made his way to India, Secretary Rumsfeld told reporters he believes tensions between India and Pakistan no longer appear to be escalating and there have been some hopeful signs that the conflict over Kashmir has leveled off. "It is not getting worse," he said, "and that is a good thing." 

On Monday India announced it would allow commercial Pakistani airliners to resume flights over its territory, a move which India said was intended to acknowledge the steps Pakistan has taken to calm the crisis. 

Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters on the way here he is not coming to the region as a mediator but is, rather, bringing proposals to take up with both sides. "We certainly have things we can discuss with them and that they have been discussing, he continued, "and I look forward to meeting them." 

And, he praised Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf for taking steps to put an end to cross-border attacks by Muslim militants into Indian-controlled Kashmir, a situation that has pushed the two nuclear-armed nations to the brink of war. Mr. Rumsfeld said, "He has made a very firm commitment to do everything he can do to prevent infiltration across the line of control permanently." 

Still, he suggested the crisis in South Asia is far from over, noting that the risks of miscalculation remain and that Muslim militants who have their own interests are still capable of creating an incident which could inflame tensions on both sides again. 

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U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says progress is being made in defusing the threat of war between India and Pakistan over the disputed region of Kashmir. 

Speaking at a joint news conference with Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar in Islamabad Thursday, Mr. Rumsfeld urged the rival countries to settle their differences through dialogue. 

Foreign Minister Sattar said Pakistan welcomed steps - which he called "marginal" - that India has taken to reduce the threat of war. Earlier this week, India reopened its air space to Pakistani commercial flights and moved its warships out of Pakistani waters. 

Despite the conciliatory efforts, one million troops continue to face each other and exchange almost daily gunfire across the Line of Control in Kashmir. 

Backing off a statement he made Wednesday in New Delhi, Mr. Rumsfeld said that the United States has no direct evidence that al-Qaida terrorists are operating in Kashmir. But he said U.S. intelligence has received reports indicating that al-Qaida members may be in the region. Mr. Rumsfeld praised Pakistan's cooperation in the U.S. led operation to destroy the al-Qaida network. 

He said he has "no doubt" that if there was concrete intelligence as to the presence of al-Qaida in Kashmir, that Pakistan would "go find them." 

Mr. Rumsfeld's visit to Islamabad ended a 10-day tour of Europe, the Middle East, India and Pakistan. Mr. Rumsfeld Wednesday held talks with top Indian officials in New Delhi - including Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee - and praised India's constructive steps towards reducing tensions with Pakistan. 

In New Delhi, the U.S. Defense Secretary said he discussed the possibility of using U.S. electronic sensors to monitor any movement by Pakistan-based militants across the military line-of-control to attack targets in the Indian part of Kashmir. But he added that no final decision has been made on whether to supply India with the sophisticated sensors. 

Some information for this report provided by AFP and Reuters. 

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Donald Rumsfeld talks to reporters in Pakistan

After his talks with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld told reporters that India and Pakistan must try to settle their differences through dialogue. He urged the two countries to halt border clashes that Mr. Rumsfeld says are causing mostly civilian casualties. 

"It seems to me as unfortunate for two neighbors and one would hope that the people involved on all sides would decide that that is not the appropriate method of dialogue," he said. 

Mr. Rumsfeld says India's decision to recall warships deployed near Pakistani waters and lifting a ban on Pakistani civilian planes flying over Indian territory have contributed to the reduction of some tensions. 

Addressing the same news conference, Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said the threat of war would remain unless India withdraws its forces from the border. 

"The President has said that we welcome the steps, however marginal, that India has taken, which have had a certain marginal impact," Mr. Sattar said. "But there is no change whatsoever in the capability of the Indian forces massed on our borders and the Line of Control [dividing Kashmir]. Therefore there is no real reduction in the threat [of war]. 

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said that President Musharraf's determination to stop separatist militants from crossing into Indian Kashmir has helped reduce tensions with India. 

Clarifying a statement he made earlier, Mr. Rumsfeld says there is no direct evidence al-Qaida is operating in Kashmir, but is confident that Pakistan will deal with terrorists found anywhere in that region. Wednesday, he said there were indications the terrorist group may be operating in Kashmir. 

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Bomb Blast Kills At Least 11 Outside US Consulate in Karachi

Ayaz Gul
Islamabad
14 Jun 2002 08:09 UTC

AP
Police officers examine a pickup damaged in a bombing outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi

U.S. and Pakistani officials say a car bomb exploded about 15 meters in front of the American consulate in the central part of Karachi. Officials believe the attack was the work of a suicide bomber, who was in the vehicle. 

A woman and two policemen guarding the American consulate are among the dead. Doctors say some of the injured are seriously wounded. 

The powerful explosion occurred around noon in Karachi. Rescue teams and ambulances rushed to the scene, and police sealed off the area around the consulate. The blast left a deep crater on the road near the U.S. mission and turned vehicles parked nearby into wrecks. Part of a heavily-reinforced wall around the consulate offices was blown out and windows in buildings in the vicinty of the consulate were shattered. 

A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Islamabad, Mark Wentworth said no Americans were killed, but some consulate staffers were lightly injured. "An American Marine security guard and five Pakistani employees at the consulate sustained minor injuries when struck by flying debris," he said. "Many windows in the U.S. consulate have been blown out and the building has sustained structural damage." 

The consulate was closed for normal business after the attack and most employees were sent home. 

There are no immediate claims of responsibility. 

This is the second such attack in a month in Pakistan's commercial center, Karachi. Eleven French nationals and two Pakistanis were killed in a suicide car bomb attack outside a luxury hotel in the city in May. 

Officials suspect that bombing was carried out by extremist elements linked to the al-Qaida terror network. Pakistan's cooperation with the United States in the war on terror has outraged many Islamic groups in the country. 

The United States and Britain have already reduced their diplomatic presence in Pakistan because of threat of terrorist attacks against their citizens. Fifteen foreigners, including Americans, have been killed in Pakistan in several incidents of violence this year. 

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India's defense minister has acknowledged that Pakistan is acting to stop Islamic rebels from infiltrating Indian territory, but he said deployment at the border will continue as long as cross-border terrorism is there. 

Defense Minister George Fernandes told reporters in New Delhi that there had been a marked drop in the number of Islamic militants crossing over from Pakistan to attack Indian targets. 

Later, he added that if over the next month or two terrorists have stopped crossing over the border from Pakistan, India can "do the job of calling back our army." 

The defense minister's comments come amid a general easing of tensions between the two sides, despite several incidents of violence earlier this week in the disputed Kashmir region. 

India accuses Pakistan of sending armed militants into Kashmir to wage a rebellion against Indian rule. Pakistan denies the charge, but recently vowed to stop militants from crossing into Indian Kashmir from the Pakistan-administered side. 

The nuclear rivals still have a million troops massed along their 2,900 kilometer border. Cross-border clashes take place almost daily. 

Some information for this report provided by AFP and Reuters. 

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