*NEW YORK: *Warning that the Kashmir crisis could get worse, Pakistan’sAmbassador to the United States Asad Majeed Khan has raised the possibilitythat Islamabad might redeploy troops from the Afghanistan border to theKashmir frontier, a shift that could complicate American peace talks withthe Taliban, now said to be in the final stages.
In an interview with *The New York Timeslink*editorialboard on Monday, Khan emphasised that the Kashmir and Afghanistan issueswere separate and that he was not attempting to link them.
On the contrary, he said, Pakistan hoped the American talks with theTaliban would succeed and that his country was actively supporting them.
“We are doing all that we can and will continue to do so,” Ambassador Khansaid. “It’s not an either-or situation.”
Nonetheless, the Pakistani envoy said that India’s crackdown on occupiedKashmir as it annexed the disputed state “could not have come at a worsetime for us.”
In this regard, *NYT *explained that Pakistan has sought to strengthenmilitary control along the western border with Afghanistan, an area longinfiltrated by Taliban militants, as part of the effort to help end theAfghanistan conflict by denying the group a safe haven.
“We have our hands full on the western border,” Ambassador Khan said,adding, “If the situation escalates on the eastern border, we will have toundertake redeployments.”
Read Top Stories
“Right now in Islamabad, we are not thinking about anything but what ishappening on our eastern border.”
About the reaction in India to New Delhi’s illegal IoK move, Khan said,“Pakistan as a punching bag sells in India.”
There has been little communication between the two countries over the pastweek, the ambassador said, and the crisis “unfortunately, I suspect, isgoing to get worse.”
But he declined to specify what such a worsening would look like.
“We are two big countries, with very large militaries, with nuclearcapability and a history of conflict, so I would not like to burden yourimagination on that one,” he said. “But obviously if things get worse,things get worse.”
