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Pak claims capture of 2 Indian soldiers

Pakistan today showed video footage of two Indian soldiers it said it captured during an Indian ''act of aggression'' over the military Line of Control dividing Kashmir, at the end of August.

''These soldiers are safe with us,'' military spokesman Brig Rashid Qureshi told an Islamabad news conference which saw brief video clips of two men in Indian army uniforms.

He said they were taken prisoner when 400 Indian troops attacked across the LoC in the Shyok-Turtok sector close to Kargil, scene of two months of heavy fighting between the two arch-rivals until a disengagement agreement in July.

Qureshi identified the pair as Ram Singh, No. 2984373, and Bajinder Singh, No. 2996593, both of the Third Rajput battalion of the Ninth Indian brigade. He quoted an Indian army spokesman as saying in an international news agency report that ''no such attack was launched by the Indian army''.

The two men, who looked in good condition, said they were taken on the night of August 29/30. ''Don't worry about me. I am all right,'' Bajinder Singh said.

Qureshi said the attack, together with India's shooting down of a Pakistani naval patrol plane, killing all 16 on board, was proof that ''while Pakistan continues to de-escalate, India does not appear to be interested.''

UNI

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