Pak says Indian pressure forcing it to deploy more troops on eastern border

In what is being seen as more of a diplomatic ploy to exert pressure on the US, Pakistan has reiterated that it’s being forced to deploy more troops on its eastern border due to heightened tensions with India.

“Pakistan knows the one way to blackmail and extract more from Washington is to threaten to slow down action against the Taliban on its western flank. That is why all these declarations are being made yet again,” said an Indian official.

Even as Islamabad and Washington wrapped up their first strategic dialogue at the ministerial level, the latest such declaration was made by Pakistan’s high commissioner in London, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, who told a British newspaper that assertiveness by India was sapping his country’s ability to fight the Taliban.

“The (Pakistan) government has had to send some troops down there (Indian border) because we don’t want to leave ourselves exposed. This is taking away from our defence capabilities on the Afghan border. We really wish the international community would intervene, but nobody has said anything to the Indians,” Hasan said.