Pakistan air force ‘on high alert’

Pakistan’s air force is on high alert and on full combat readiness and troops have moved into strategic positions on a war footing, officials said today as tensions with neighbouring India escalated.

‘‘Our training is better and we are certainly in a position to take on India,’’ Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir said in Islamabad.

Relations plummeted between the nuclear-armed rivals after a December 13 attack on India’s parliament by five gunmen.

India accused Pakistan of sponsoring the attack in which 14 people, including the attackers, were killed.

Pakistan has about 350 fighter aircraft, compared with India’s 800. But Mir said his warplanes were in position to counter any attack.

Witnesses and defence officials said Pakistan has started deploying troops on bridges and other important installations.

Doctors and medical staff in all four provinces and Kashmir said they were ordered to prepare for any emergency with extra beds and medicine.

On Friday, India said it will recall its ambassador from Pakistan and sever bus and rail links from January 1. It stopped short of cutting diplomatic relations.

Pakistan denied any involvement in the attack, and President Pervez Musharraf accused India of acting arrogantly and rashly.

Both countries already had reinforced their border defences on the ground, despite international pleas for restraint.

Pakistan and India have fought three wars since British rule ended on the subcontinent in 1947. Two of the wars were fought over the disputed region of Kashmir, which is divided between them.