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Pakistan may move troops on Afghan border to Indian border+
Nov 29 08:56 PM US/Eastern
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ISLAMABAD, Nov. 30 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Pakistan has conveyed to the United States and NATO that in the event of an escalation of tensions with India following the terrorist attacks in India's financial capital Mumbai, Pakistan may be forced to withdraw its troops from the border with Afghanistan and deploy them on the border with India, a high-ranking security official said Saturday.

The official told a select group of reporters on condition of anonymity that a move to withdraw the troops on the Afghan border would also mean that all military operations against militants in Pakistan's tribal areas would have to be suspended.

The official said that next 48 hours are very important for the relations between Pakistan and India, claiming India has started a military buildup all along its border with Pakistan and on the Line of Control dividing the disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir.

"The situation is serious. Let us not befool ourselves," Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told a briefing after a Cabinet meeting Saturday. "We should hope for the best and be ready for the worst," Qureshi said.

Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, director general of the Inter-Service Intelligence agency, also held a meeting to discuss the situation.

Pakistan's relations with India are deteriorating in the wake of the attacks by suspected Islamic militants in Mumbai that erupted Wednesday.

Indian commandos killed the last gunmen holed up at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai on Saturday, ending the three-day rampage that claimed 195 lives including foreigners.

Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor said nine assailants were killed and one captured alive, reportedly a member of the Pakistan- based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group.

According to an Indian state official all the assailants were foreigners.

Indian authorities are reportedly questioning the crew of a ship detained off India's west coast, suspecting that the attacks originated from the vessel.

A little-known group of Islamist militants, calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen, has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Indian security officials say they believe Lashkar-e-Taiba was involved.

Earlier, India requested Pakistan to send the head of the ISI to India to help in the investigations.

The Pakistani government initially said it had accepted the request to send the director general of the ISI but later retracted the statement. Instead, the government said that an official of the ISI would visit India.

Pakistan has deployed nearly 100,000 troops on the border with Afghanistan to check the cross-border movement of Taliban and al-Qaida remnants taking shelter in Pakistan's tribal areas.