POST 26/11 - Indo-Pak war fever cools

Military level contacts reduced tensions
The Pakistani es tablishment now believes that the "time of war" with India is over and the recent telephonic contacts at the highest military level have led to reduction in tensions generated in the wake of troop build up following the Mumbai terror attacks. "The time of war has gone and even India cannot dare mount surgical strikes primarily because of the uncertain response," an unnamed top official told The News daily after the Directors General of Military Operations of the two countries spoke on their hotline over the weekend.

The contacts between the DGMOs had not been suspended after last month's terrorist attacks in Mumbai and that the two officials remained in touch, officials said. The DGMOs discussed the situation along the Line of Control and the international border and other issues, Dawn News channel reported.

It quoted sources as saying that the conversation was part of "routine contacts" between the two top military officials. Inter-Services Public Relations chief Maj Gen Athar Abbas too confirmed the talks between the DGMOs. The DGMOs usually make contact on Tuesday on a routine basis but they spoke to each other over the weekend in an "extraordinary move", The News said.

"That was only possible with the consent of top military leaders of both the countries. Apparently, this helped lower the tension," a source told the newspaper. It also quoted unnamed defence analysts as saying that war "never breaks out when forces on both sides of the border are prepared".

Pakistan last week redeployed close to 20,000 troops from the Afghan border to the eastern frontier with India after scaling down operations against the local Taliban in the tribal belt. Pakistan's army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Tuesday emphasised the need to "de-escalate and avoid conflict" with India in the wake of the Mumbai attacks as China launched a diplomatic initiative to ease the Indo-Pak tensions by dispatching a top diplomat here.

Kayani's comments, believed to be his first on the situation, came during his talks with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei, who is here to help defuse the Indo-Pak tensions. Gilani doesn't want war Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani too on Monday voiced his opposition to war and vowed not to allow his country's soil to be used for terrorism. "We have never wanted war with anybody... We also want our soil should not be used for terrorism.

If our soil is used, NATO forces (based in Afghanistan) will get a chance to react," Gi lani said.