NEW DELHI, India, Dec. 12, Reuters: Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi today accused Pakistan of training freedom fighters and sending them into India on sabotage and subversion mi ions, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency said.
It said Gandhi told Indian troops in the city of ladakh in northernmost Jammu and Kashmir state that Pakistan was sending trained saboteurs and agents to the troubled border state of Punjab and other parts of India.
PTI quoted Gandhi as saying India could take action against what he called the Sikh freedom fighters’ camps in Pakistan “but ‘we do not want to violate international rules and regulations”.
The text of Gandhi’s speech was not available in New Delhi tonight but paraphrasing his remarks PTI reported him as saying “Pakistan had set up training centers for freedom fighters from where they ‘were being trained in sabotage and subversion to create internal disturbances in Punjab and other parts Of the country”.
PTI also reported that Gandhi said Pakistan’s plans could not succeed and added “if they (Pakistan) tried to attack us again, we ‘will give them a crushing defeat”
He added that Pakistan was often negative towards India’s efforts to establish friendship and cordial relations.
Gandhi made the remarks while visiting Jammu and Kashmir, over which India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 after promoting an alliance between his Congress (I) Party and the State’s Moslem Chief Minister Faroug Abdullah.
Indian officials frequently accuse Pakistan of assisting Sikhs whose campaign for a separate homeland in Punjab called Khalistan (Land of the Pure) has cost more than 650 lives this year.
But Gandhi’s remarks as quoted by PTI tonight appeared his toughest statement yet on the subject.
Punjab is currently in a deepening crisis provoked by the recent massacre of 22 Hindu bus passengers which sparked antiSikh riots and protests in New Delhi and across much of northern India.
The state’s moderate but beleaguered Sikh government last week declared about 40 per cent of its territory “disturbed” and authorized local authorities to call out the army when necessary. ‘Army Commander General Krishna swami Sunderji also confirmed yesterday that India was carrying out large scale military manoeuvres near the Pakistan frontier in the western state of Rajasthan, which borders Punjab, and accused Pakistan of raising an unnecessary “hullabaloo” about them.
Sunderji comments were the first official admission of the exceptionally large war games after weeks of press speculation that they were taking place.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 19, 1986
