Thaindian News

Islamabad, April 29 (IANS) Pakistan Thursday denied US reports that it has shifted 100,000 troops from its eastern border with India to its western frontier with Afghanistan, terming the reports “baseless, ridiculous and misleading”.
About 147,000 security forces personnel were deployed on its western borders to combat the menace of terrorism and no additional forces had been shifted there, Online news agency quoted military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas as saying.

“Our armed forces are conducting operation against the terrorists on the western borders. We are facing threat of conventional war from the eastern borders, therefore, the troops deployed on the eastern borders alongside India have not been thinned out and nor will this strength be scaled down,” he said.

“The number of troops required to be deployed on the eastern border is still there and any question to relocate them to the western border stands ruled out,” Abbas said, adding that there was “no substance” in the reports published in the US media.

In a report to the US Congress, the US defence department said that “more than 100,000 PAKMIL (Pakistan military) troops were moved from the eastern border with India. This unprecedented deployment and thinning of the lines against India indicates that Islamabad has acknowledged its domestic insurgent threat”.

The “Report on Progress toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan” said over 130,000 Pakistani troops were participating in the ongoing campaign against the Taliban in Pakistan’s tribal region.