India and Pakistan edged closer to war today as border villages were evacuated after troops shelled each other in disputed Kashmir.
The overnight shelling came after the nuclear-armed rivals imposed the toughest diplomatic and economic sanctions on each other since they last fought a war in 1971.
However, Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf said today his country would never initiate a war.
"Pakistan stands for peace, we do not want war," he told a dinner at the presidential palace. But he warned that his country was prepared for conflict.
Indian Foreign Minister Mr Jaswant Singh echoed the threat: "There is no measuring scale that we have to say how near or how far we are to war," he said. "I will just say this: Don't worry. We are ready."
A Pakistani government spokesman, General Rashid Quereshi, responded in kind. "We have the capacity to react and retaliate in all conceivable ways," he said.
Tens of thousands of soldiers, squadrons of fighter jets, artillery and ballistic missiles face each other along the 1,100-mile frontier that extends from the Himalayas in the north through the Thar Desert to the Arabian Sea in the south.
Both nations rushed troops and weapons to the border after a suicide attack on India's parliament on December 13th. India accuses Pakistan of supporting the attackers. Pakistan denies the charge.
Meanwhile, the US has urged New Delhi to accept Islamabad's offer to scale back the troop reinforcements which have sparked worries of war.
However, India today ordered 5,000 people to leave 17 villages northwest of Kashmir's winter capital, within 36 hours. Earlier, 24 villages with 10,000 inhabitants were evacuated.
Villagers fled their homes with beds and clothes fearing India and Pakistan will go to war for the fourth time since they became independent from Britain and were partitioned in 1947.
AP