Global Policy Forum

by Rory Carroll

The head of Indian troops in the disputed state of Kashmir conjured the spectre of full-scale war with Pakistan by warning yesterday that the insults and gunfire flying across the border, reminiscent of the lead-up to their 1965 war, risked slipping out of control.

Lieutenant-General RK Nanavatty, chief of the Indian army's northern command, hinted that further provocation would trigger an invasion and occupation of the the one-third of Kashmir controlled by Pakistan, using conventional forces.

"The nuclearisation of the subcontinent might have altered the situation, but despite that, the space exists for a limited conventional operation," he said.

India's prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, fuelled the tension in a baroque exchange with Pakistan's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, about whether India was a nation of bangle-wearing women, as Gen Musharraf observed, or of tough men who wore metal bracelets, as Mr Vajpayee observed. Calling someone a bangle-wearer is a traditional insult.

The rhetoric deepened unease in Washington and London that Kashmir could trigger a clash between two key states in the coalition against Afghanistan's Taliban regime.

The French foreign minister, Hubert Védrine will follow in the footsteps today of Tony Blair, the German chancellor, Gerhard Schrí¶der, and the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, on a trip to New Dehli and Islamabad to plead for restraint and bolster support for the bombing of Afghanistan.

An Indian soldier died and four others were wounded yesterday when Pakistani troops opened fire across the Uri sector of the "line of control" that divides Kashmir, an Indian official said.

India, which is largely Hindu, accuses Pakistan of sponsoring a Muslim separatist revolt which has claimed more than 30,000 lives in 12 years. Pakistan admits only to moral and diplomatic support for the struggle against foreign occupation.

A year-long ceasefire effectively crumbled after the October 1 car bombing of the Kashmir state assembly, which killed 40 people. Both sides have brought up reinforcements and fired heavy artillery in a dangerous game of bluff and counterbluff that has left dozens more dead.

The vocabulary used by Gen Nanavatty, who commands more than 500,000 soldiers, caught Islamabad by surprise. "In August 1965, the situation was not entirely dissimilar to what it is today when we undertook a limited, conventional war in the Haji Peer area," he said.

He said India would take drastic action if Pakistan did not stop arming, training and funding the guerrillas.

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