Zardari rules out shifting troops from Indian border

Washington May.9 (ANI): Putting aside continuous US demands for shifting its troops from the eastern Indian border to the Western border along Afghanistan to focus more on the Taliban's surge, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that the move is not possible.

"Half of our army is deployed on Indo-Pak Eastern boarder and we cannot move army from there for their deployment on Western border," The News quoted Zardari, as saying.

When enquired as to why Islamabad is refusing to move troops from the Indian border, Zardari said it has already shifted an unspecified number of troops from its border with India to fight against the Taliban.

"We have already done so," he added.

Zardari said he wants an improved relationship with India, and is trying hard to establish peace in the region.

"I've always considered India a neighbor which we want to improve our relationship with. We've had some cold times and we've had some hot times with them, but democracies are always trying to improve relationships," he added.

The United States has been urging Pakistan to focus more on the porous Afghan border rather than mounting troops on the Indian side.

"Pakistan must reconfigure its military forces to deal with counterinsurgency operations rather than to continue its conventional focus on traditional rival India," the US Central Command chief General David Petraeus had said recently. (ANI)