India-Pakistan: December 30, 2001

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Pakistan denied that it had moved troops from the Pakistan border to the Indian frontier. India has been moving some additional units to the border area. India's army is nearly twice the size of Pakistan's (1.1 million troops versus 620,000.) Most of both armies are infantry divisions (33 Indian and 26 Pakistani.) Offensive forces are more meager. India has three armored divisions, four partially mechanized infantry divisions and seven independent tank brigades. Pakistan has two armored divisions, seven tank brigades and six mechanized infantry brigades. A greater portion of Pakistani troops are independent brigades. More important is the differences in equipment. Pakistan has older, Chinese built tanks (most of them T-55 clones), while most Indian tanks are much better T-72 (or similar types). Moreover, India has some 3,400 tanks (plus a thousand older ones in storage) while Pakistan has only 2,400. India has twice as much artillery. Any war would be largely an infantry slogging match, although each side has a chance of making a breakthrough with their limited armored forces. In the past, it has been India that has managed to make the successful armored attack. While some of the border area is flat tank country, most of it is hills and mountains. Here, the infantry does most of the fighting and slogs along rather slowly. Each nation probably has no more than half a dozen nuclear weapons.

Pakistan has captured some 200 al Qaeda fighters fleeing from Afghanistan. Arabic speaking FBI agents are working with Pakistani police to interrogate the captives.  

 

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