Kashmir police base is attacked

Fears of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan grew again today after suspected Islamic guerrillas stormed a Kashmir police base, killing at least three officers.

The guerrillas were still holed up in the base at the District Police Lines in Doda this morning, and police officials said they had no idea how many there were.

The news will dismay both Britain and diplomats in the region, who only last night were hoping the prospect of war there had diminished after an alleged change of heart in Islamabad.

Sources suggested authorities in the city had ordered its border forces to turn back any suspected militants trying to cross into Indian Kashmir, following warnings from India that Pakistan should stop terror attacks if it wanted peace.

India claims Pakistan funds, trains and arms the militants, and provides covering fire for them to cross the border, but Pakistan says it only provides "moral support" to guerrillas involved in the "freedom struggle" by native Kashmiris.

As tensions between the two countries escalated, the United States government began drawing up plans for a mass evacuation of 64,000 Americans from the area.

Following in the footsteps of Britain, Australia and New Zealand, who urged their citizens to leave Pakistan earlier this month, a US government team based in India worked on a contingency plan to evacuate 1,100 US troops on three bases in Pakistan and up to 63,000 citizens in both countries, USA Today reported.

It said US State Department officials were now working with officials from the US military's Pacific Command on plans for a massive airlift of citizens.

The evacuation plans come after days of mortar and machinegun fire over the frontier in the disputed Himalayan state.

The two countries have fought three wars since 1947, including two over Kashmir, and both have mobilised a million men along the border since the confrontation was triggered in December by a raid on India's parliament.

The prospect of war increased two weeks ago after a raid on an Indian army camp, which India blamed on the same guerrillas who attacked the parliament. Since then British and US politicians have been working to bring an end to the fighting.

America's deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage plans to visit India and Pakistan on 6 and 7 June in an attempt to defuse the crisis, which the US fears may disrupt its campaign against the Taliban and al Qaeda in western Pakistan and nearby Afghanistan.

US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld is also thought to be planning a peace-making trip, while Foreign Secretary Jack Straw concluded his two-day visit to Islamabad and New Delhi yesterday.