India Will Launch Air Strikes on Pakistan in Two Weeks

Amid continuing tension between India and Pakistan, Indian forces plan to launch air strikes on the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, a common border between the two nuclear powers, in two weeks, reported Telegraph, a British Daily, on June 6.

The newspaper reported that after launching a large-scale military campaign in a similar way to the U.S.-led war on Afghanistan in mid-June, Indian forces plan to wage a ground war such as deploying special forces through helicopters.

Indian officials said that Indian forces will destroy bridges on the Karacoram Express, which links China and the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and 50 to 75 Islamic militant bases.

Indian forces will destroy bridges first, disabling China, Pakistani ally, to provide weapons and sever the supply line of military units at the front, the newspaper reported.

Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of the U.S. State Department, began mediating the Kashmir conflict with the arrival at Islamabad on June 6 as a special envoy to reduce tension. U.S. defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld will visit India and Paskistan next week. On June 5, U.S. president George W. Bush urged Pakistan`s president Pervez Musharraf and India`s prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to reduce tension in a telephone conversation. He also emphasized the need to resolve conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.