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ISLAMABAD - Tens of thousands of ordinary Pakistanis paid their respects at the grave of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto yesterday, as reports of troop movements led to fears that India and Pakistan were making preparations for a military conflict.
An estimated 150,000 made the pilgrimage to Benazir
Bhutto's remote ancestral village, Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, in the southern Sindh province. Crying out "Bibi [Benazir Bhutto] is alive", a huge crowd, many in tears, beating their heads and chests, gathered to pray at her graveside, which lies close to that of her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, another former prime minister, in a marble mausoleum.
Many of Bhutto's mourners had walked for hundreds of kilometres in the bitter Pakistani winter to her family mausoleum, where they jostled for a chance kiss her grave or toss rose petals.
Bhutto's widower, President Asif Ali Zardari, did not mention the troop movement in a speech honouring his wife, but insisted Pakistan was battling the "cancer" of terrorism.
"We ourselves have accepted that we have a cancer. Yes, we will cure it," said Zardari. "They [terrorists] are forcing their agenda on us."
In an attempt to defuse the growing tension between the two countries, Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said: "We don't want to fight, we don't want to have war, we don't want to have aggression with our neighbours" but the country's military was "fully prepared" to respond to any Indian aggression.
The speech came after Pakistani intelligence officials announced that the Army was redeploying thousands of troops from the country's fight against militants along the Afghan border to the Indian frontier.
Islamabad also said it was cancelling all military leave, as relations continued to deteriorate between the nuclear-armed neighbours after last month's terror attack on the Indian financial capital of Mumbai. India has blamed Pakistani militants for the three-day siege which left 164 people dead, after gunmen targeted 10 sites in the city, including two five-star hotels.
After the troop movements, panic has reportedly gripped towns close to the Indian border, with residents convinced war was about to break out.
But the redeployments are generally seen as an indication that Pakistan will retaliate if India launches air or missile strikes against militant targets on its soil. A senior Pakistan military official said: "We are only pulling out a limited number of troops, in view of the situation, from the areas that are not involved in the operation [against Islamic militants].
"It is part of the necessary defensive measures."
Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee accused Pakistan of whipping up a "sort of war hysteria". Mukherjee said: "I appeal to Pakistan and Pakistani leaders: do not unnecessarily try to create tension. Do not try to deflect the issue. A problem has to be tackled face to face."
The United States has been trying to ease the burgeoning crisis while pressing Pakistan to crack down on militants Washington says are likely to be responsible for the Mumbai attacks.
But the Indian position towards Pakistan has notably hardened over the last few days.
Air Marshal P.K. Barbora, chief of India's western air command, said the Air Force had identified 5000 terrorist targets inside Pakistani territory.
He said diplomacy should be given a chance, but if that failed, "war is the last resort".
Pakistan and India have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947.
India warned its citizens to stay away from Pakistan, claiming that they were in danger from agencies "that operate outside the law and civilian control".
Many in India appear ready to believe the Mumbai bombings were sanctioned at the highest level in Pakistan, with newspapers citing unnamed sources within the Indian Administration claiming that the attacks were part of a plan by the Pakistani military to reassert itself over the civilian government.
Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, has been briefed by his armed forces chiefs on the military situation. New Delhi has done little to play down talk of war, mobilising the country's network of civil defence volunteers and asking them to be ready to evacuate border villages if necessary.
- OBSERVER, AP