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Missile-Carrying Indian Warships Sail Near Pakistan, Air Force On Alert
New Delhi (AFP) May 22, 2002 Missile-carrying Indian naval warships on Wednesday steamed into the Arabian Sea, closer to Pakistan, as military tensions between the two South Asian nuclear neighbours soared, officials here said. "We have moved five frontline ships of the eastern fleet to be cross-deployed to the western seaboard to augment the force levels," Naval spokesman Commander Rahul Gupta said. Highly-placed naval sources told AFP that four of the vessels are armed with missiles but the spokesman declined to elaborate on the redeployment, which comes in the middle of heightening military tensions between India and Pakistan. "A Russian-built destroyer, an indigenous frigate and three corvettes are steaming into the Arabian Sea from the Bay of Bengal," the source said, adding the destroyer, the frigate and two of the corvettes are capable of launching missiles. The Indian Navy has already brought the country's merchant navy under its flag and kept its only aircraft carrier on a state of alert in the Bay of Bengal. The Indian Air Force, the world's fourth largest, also went on alert as India's mobilisation gained momentum on Wednesday. "We are still not at the stage where we scramble jets but we are now on a state of alert," a senior offical from the Western Air Command told AFP on condition of anonymity. He said the air force has also cleared some 80 grounded MiG-21s for operational duty due to the increased tensions. The planes were grounded when a jet ploughed into a state-run bank, killing or injuring 23 people earlier this month. "We are also redeploying our Mirage-2000 and Jaguars to forward locations from their mother bases," the official said of the fleet of French- and British-built warplanes which adds teeth to India's mainly Russian-built air force. The Press Trust of India said the air force was also moving its "strategic assets" including ground-to-air-missiles to protect vital installations but there was no independent confirmation of the dispatch.
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