Tensions mount as Pakistan shifts troops to Indian border

ISLAMABAD (AFP)

“We do not want to create any war hysteria but we have to take minimum security measures to ward off any threat,” a defence ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

He added that leave for “operational” armed forces personnel had been cancelled “as a defensive measure”.

Another senior Pakistani security official told AFP the new deployments on the Indian border were not in “significant numbers but only in areas opposite the points where India is believed to have brought forward its troops”.

The defence ministry official said authorities had noticed the movement of Indian troops toward the border near Lahore, and that they believed India had also cancelled military leave.

AFP