From The Wall Street Journal:
Article by Zahid Hussain in Islamabad and Matthew Rosenberg in New Delhi.
Tensions between India and Pakistan rose again Friday as Pakistan said it was redeploying an unspecified number of troops from the fight against Islamic militants in the northwest.
Pakistani officials wouldn’t say where the troops were headed nor provide estimates of how many soldiers were on the move. The officials also said Pakistan had sharply curtailed leave for all troops amid the heightened tensions with India.
A Pakistani military spokesman suggested they will be redeployed to face Indian forces on the country’s eastern border, calling the troop movements and the restriction of leave “defensive and precautionary steps” prompted by souring relations with India after last month’s Mumbai terrorist attacks that left 171 people dead.
Another Pakistani security official said some of the country’s soldiers were being moved from northwestern areas where there were no militants to fight, or where both sides were snowed in.
Both officials insisted the redeployment was modest and won’t affect the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda, which control wide swaths of territory along Pakistan’s northwestern border with Afghanistan. [Read More]