the land bristles with Indian soldiers-turbaned Sikhs, lowering Punjabis, dark-skinned wiry Gurkhas-and it is a land wearing the menacing mask of wartime camouflage. Near Amritsar, the largest Indian town near the border with Pakistan, a stack of hay suddenly Starts to move, giving away the fact, it is a disguised tank, and a glance behind a mud barrier reveals a 106 m.m antitank gun and its crew. Soldiers in civilian clothes prowl the border looking for infiltrators, and every bridge worthy of name is equipped with dynamite charges in case it must be blown up to stop advancing Pakistanis. “War is coming for sure,” a Sikh sergeant said matter-of-factly. “We just don't know when."
The Indians not only are convinced they will have a war they are aggressively confident they will win it and cripple Pakistan into the bargain. “This time there will be no stopping us the border,” one Major told me “The Pakistanis might be able to take the offensive in one place, but we would take it in five. And this time we will stay. It would mean the end for them,” To carry their message that the people of the Punjab will be safe, the Indian army has ringed important border towns in Steel, massing scores of tank” on their outskirts. And teams of drumbeating soldiers march along country roads and into village squares repeating their belligerent boast; “All the fighting will be done in Pakistan. Not a single shell will fall here."
Communication
Yet. bellicose as the Indians are the border itself is be musingly peaceful. At the crossing point near Ferozpore, a squad of Pakistan frontier ranger's jokes with the Indian guards, and when no officers are looking, the Indians trade the Pakistanis sugar for cigarettes. Border traffic-whether refugees seeking asylum or trucks loaded with pomegranates proceeds as usual, and the Indian customs inspector complains that the young Pakistani immigrants “are only interested in hashish” But the communication between these would-be enemies is not all furtive or commercial. Major Diljit Singh, Deputy Commander of the Indian Border Security Forces, meets Pakistanis regularly at the border and openly has tea with them. “They tell me. Sahib, we don't want war." Singh said. Let them fight in Last Pakistan. Let us not have war here.” That wish, however, may not be granted. “War is, inevitable,” said a seasoned Western diplomat in New Delhi. “It is only a matter of time."
A Talk With Pakistan's President Yahya Khan
With his country in the midst of one crisis-the guerrilla rebellion in East Pakistan-and on the verge of another-war with India-Pakistan's President Mohammad, Yahya Khan gave an interview last week to Newsweek's senior editor Arnaud de Borchgrave. In their conversation. President Yahya spelled out his position on some of the crucial issues facing his country and India. Below, excerpts from Yahya's remarks:
On The Likelihood Of War
I have no reason to tell you war is not imminent because it is. The Indians are already at war with us, and the only reason there is no general confrontation is that we are not hitting back. We are still exercising maximum restraint despite growing provocation. The
