Word: pakistanis
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...bomb and rocket attacks inside Pakistan have claimed at least 297 lives. During all of 1986, only about 24 people were killed in similar raids. The increase in the number of strikes prompted Pakistan to send President Reagan an "extremely urgent" request for U.S. radar surveillance planes to direct Pakistani F-16s against intruders along the country's 1,400-mile border with Afghanistan...
...chain of events that brought the Reagan Administration to the current impasse began in early 1986. At that time Washington pressured Islamabad to permit the Afghan guerrillas in Pakistan's border province to receive Stinger antiaircraft missiles from the U.S. Pakistani President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq reluctantly went along, despite a warning from the Soviet Union that Pakistan would pay a high price. By last November, mujahedin equipped with Stingers were shooting down an average of one Soviet or Afghan aircraft a day. Last week, according to Radio Kabul, the rebels struck again, downing an Afghan transport plane and reportedly...
While Islamabad ponders Washington's counteroffer, questions have been raised about who will operate the planes' highly technical electronic gear. Buildings are being designed to house U.S. personnel at two Pakistani air bases, but in congressional hearings last month, Reagan Administration aides ruled out the participation of U.S. airmen or civilians...
...eventually gives in to Pakistani entreaties and supplies technicians, they will be at risk both in the air and on the ground in Pakistan, where agents of KHAD, Afghanistan's secret service, frequently stage terror bombings. Last week three time bombs ripped through a Peshawar railway station. In addition, the deal has run into opposition from Senator John Glenn of Ohio, a Democrat who is an outspoken critic of Pakistan's nuclear program. Later this month Glenn plans to propose an end to all U.S. military aid until Islamabad demonstrates that it has ceased production of weapons-grade uranium...
...problem is that Pakistan's original request is starting to look disingenuous, if only because the radar planes may be of little help. Afghan and Soviet MiGs fly toward Pakistan's border frequently but cross the border less often. Even then, they typically spend only a few minutes in Pakistani airspace. Says a retired Pakistani officer: "Our air force cannot scramble its F-16s every time Afghan warplanes head east." The Afghans have the option of relying more on terror bombing, or on cross-border shelling, which alone has caused several deaths in recent weeks and forced 14,000 Pakistanis...