Pakistan has withdrawn tens of thousands of troops from the border with India in a bid to quell rising violence by pro-Taliban militants in the northwest, officials in New Delhi said on Wednesday.
A top defence ministry official said Pakistani military’s strength along the frontier had hit an “all-time low” as troops were poured into NWFP bordering Afghanistan. “Our estimates are based on tested intelligence inputs from within Pakistan and feedback from our watch on their frontier assets,” added a member of India’s military intelligence.
India said the shift has left “gaping holes” in Pakistan’s eastern flank facing India. The Indian Express newspaper, quoting independent sources on Tuesday, put the number of combat troops withdrawn at 38,000.
Pakistan denial: Denying these reports from India, Inter Service Public Relations Director General Major General Waheed Arshad said Pakistan did not station troops along the recognised international border with India during peacetime. But he said Pakistan did have troops deployed on the Line of Control, the de facto border with India in disputed Kashmir, as well as on the Siachen glacier in the Himalayas. “Not a single soldier has been pulled back from these two deployments,” he said. |