War games startle India's neighbor

Tensions between nuclear foes India and Pakistan may rise after the war games

NEW DELHI, India -- India has launched its biggest war games in over a decade near its border with Pakistan.

About 50,000 troops will try to seize "enemy" assets and more than 100 fighter planes will test their firepower in the mock desert battle.

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But the exercise is likely to increase tensions between nuclear-capable India and Pakistan. Emotions been running high since the two came to the brink of a third conflict over the disputed region of Kashmir two years ago.

Defending the mock battle, which goes by the name "Complete Victory," India's defense ministry said on Saturday the exercises are designed to train soldiers to cope with a nuclear, biological or chemical weapons strike.

"The main exercise has begun, it is a five-day war game," an army spokesman said.

Pakistan informed

India has said it informed rival Pakistan about the exercises in the Bikaner sector, some 250 km (155 miles) from the border.

But Islamabad has said there was no advance notice and they only knew about exercises to be held in mid-May.

Talks between the two foes have stalled over an Indian demand that Islamabad end support for Muslim rebels fighting its rule in the Himalayan region.

Islamabad denies direct involvement in the Kashmir revolt but says it offers diplomatic and moral support to the Kashmiri people in what it calls their struggle for self-determination.

Earnest watchers

India's Defense Minister Jaswant Singh, who is also the country's foreign minister, and the chief of the army staff General S.Padmanabhan are expected to watch the exercise which will end in a firepower demonstration in the Pokhran test range.

Pokhran is also the site of India's nuclear underground nuclear tests, carried out three years ago.

Pakistan answered the Indian explosions with tests of its own in May 1998.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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