Pakistan slams India as navy dead buried
Pakistan slams India as navy dead buried
KARACHI (Agencies): Pakistan on Thursday buried its dead from
the downing of a navy patrol plane by India and Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif turned up the rhetoric on what he called New Delhi's
"barbaric" and "cowardly" act.
"It was a very barbaric act and I think it was also a very
cowardly act," Sharif told reporters after offering Islamic
prayers at the somber funeral ceremony for the 16 officers and
sailors killed in the incident.
Sharif also said Tuesday's downing of the reconnaissance plane
by Indian jets near a disputed stretch of border in marshes near
the Arabian Sea would make peace talks between the nuclear-
capable countries more difficult.
"It will complicate the matter," Sharif said when asked how
the incident would affect peace talks, already set back by the
rivals' recent dispute in divided Kashmir.
"This is a very serious violation of all principles, all
international laws and agreements," he said after the emotional
ceremony for the crew at a Karachi naval base where the flower-
covered and flag-draped coffins were displayed.
In New Delhi, Defense Minister George Fernandes said he did
not believe India and Pakistan were on the brink of war, but
added peace talks could not resume until the tension died down.
"I don't think the situation is spiraling out of control," he
told reporters. "We are not on the brink of war. I don't think
talks can start until the situation improves."
The downing of the Pakistani plane also brought a vow of
revenge from a Kashmiri militant group on Thursday.
"Mujahideen (holy warriors) will definitely take revenge from
India and the revenge would be such that India will remember for
years to come," Sayed Salahuddin, the supreme commander of Hizb-
ul-Mujahideen, said in a statement.
Salahuddin, who heads one of the largest groups fighting
Indian rule of Kashmir, said the air attack was "an act of
cowardice".
The incident came a month after India and Pakistan were close
to the brink of their fourth war after Pakistani infiltrators
captured strategic heights on the Indian side of northern Kashmir
and New Delhi launched air and ground attacks to flush them out.
Sharif disputed New Delhi statements that the plane was downed
in Indian territory after acting in an aggressive manner.
"I think they shot down a plane which had no capability of
doing anything aggressive and it didn't violate Indian airspace,
So it was very cowardly," he said.
India says the French-made Berguet Atlantique plane was shot
down when it strayed into its territory, while Islamabad says it
was on a training mission and was fired upon inside Pakistan two
km from the border with India.
Pakistan flew military attaches from more than a dozen
embassies out to the crash site on Thursday, a day after Pakistan
said it fired missiles at Indian aircraft attempting to approach
the area. It denied a New Delhi charge that it fired on
helicopters carrying journalists to the area.
A guerrilla group fighting in Indian Kashmir vowed on Thursday
to avenge the loss of 16 Pakistani navy personnel killed aboard
an aircraft downed by Indian jets this week.
"We will take revenge in Indian-occupied Kashmir in a manner
that New Delhi will remember for years," the Hizbul Mujahideen
group said in a statement.
Its commander Syed Salahuddin condemned what he called a
"cowardly act."
"Such mean steps are the result of the frustration of the
political and military leadership in India following the
humiliation faced by them recently in Kargil," Salahuddin said.
`Indian forces fought hundreds of guerrillas allegedly backed by
Pakistan in the Kargil region of the Indian sector of Kashmir
from early May to mid-July to regain strategic heights.