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Indian soldiers taboo in PoK, but NATO is welcome

        Islamabad: Close on the heels of refusing India's offer for troops to help in the relief and rescue operations in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), Pakistan it seems has no qualms about letting NATO soldiers land on its soil. NATO, which has decided to send up to 1000 troops to quake hit PoK and NWFP, surprisingly did not talk of any airlift on the lines of the 1948-49 Berlin Airlift as appealed by the UN to rescue the stranded people. "There is no question of the alliance doing that. That was Berlin after World War II and this is Pakistan now-there is absolutely no comparison," said a NATO official. UN aid official Jan Egeland, had earlier asked NATO to launch a huge airlift to get survivors to safety. She said that helicopters were the only means of getting quickly deep into PoK and NWFP, where close to 80,000 people were known to have died. Egeland said that the closest source for helicopters was India, but with New Delhi and Islamabad embroiled in a tussle, it would be of great help if the NATO could do the job of airlifting the stranded. NATO, which had said that aid work was not the Alliance's "bread and butter", announced that it would send 500 to 1,000 soldiers, including an engineering battalion, and a small number of helicopters. It said it had already transported over 1,000 tonnes of supplies to the quake victims and 40 per cent of the helicopters flying there belonged to NATO nations.