Pakistan's Efforts to Reduce the Risk of War - 2002-06-01

Pervez Musharraf, the President of Pakistan, is trying to alleviate the growing global concern over the risk of nuclear war with India. In an interview today with CNN, General Musharraf emphasized that war with unconventional weapons is completely unimaginable. The President of Pakistan stated that he does not believe any country would act so irresponsibly as to escalate to that level. In recent months, tensions between India and Pakistan have intensified, with the two rival nuclear powers putting over a million soldiers on high alert along their shared border. Fears of a potential war in the subcontinent have compelled the United States, Britain, the United Nations, and many other countries to evacuate their personnel from India and Pakistan. Additionally, the threat of war in the Indian subcontinent has led the United Nations to evacuate the families of its staff serving in India and Pakistan. In Islamabad, diplomats reported that this decision by the UN was made after the US and other countries urged their citizens to leave the region. Today in Islamabad, it was reported that unidentified individuals had kidnapped one of the staff members of the Indian embassy in the Pakistani capital while he was returning home; the diplomat's son, who was accompanying him, was not abducted and was unharmed. Gunfire exchanges between the military forces of both sides continue along the Kashmir border.