Date:11/05/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/05/11/stories/2003051103010800.htm

National

'No move to send soldiers to Iraq'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 10. The Army had prepared a contingency plan for sending troops for United Nations-led peace keeping missions "as a matter of routine'' while preparing operational plans but official sources denied that a specific request had been made for sending soldiers to Iraq after pulling them out from Jammu and Kashmir.

Reacting to reports that India was planning to pull out an army division (about 17,000 soldiers) from J&K and sending them to Iraq, official sources denied that any such move was in the offing.

Peacekeeping troops were always sent under U.N. dispensation and it would be unprecedented to send them to Iraq which was now under U.S.-led occupation.

The Army headquarters had factored for peacekeeping missions in their operational plans since the Army was a leading participant in U.N. mandated peacekeeping exercises, explained senior official sources.

"It depends on the situation. Plans are made as part of ongoing procedure and if a request is made from the highest quarters we being soldiers will comply. But we are denying recent reports in this regard.

``Also there is no move at present to de-mobilise soldiers from J&K,'' they added.