The military build-up is said to be the biggest since 1971

They often stop military trucks and force their hospitality on the soldiers, offering them hot tea and home-cooked food.

The Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, which manages Sikh historic shrines, said it is keen to set up free kitchens for the soldiers as well as the refugees.

Although migration from the border villages in Punjab has been going on for some time, there are no signs of panic - unlike the Kargil conflict in 1999.

This time the movement appears more systematic.

In most cases a few people have stayed behind in every house to tend the still unripe wheat crop.

Preparations on

In the western state of Rajasthan, the authorities say a few hundred people have shifted from their villages to nearby areas.

The administration in four border districts in the state had been asked to provide shelter for people.

Despite its official position of trying to reassure villagers to slow or stem the migration, the authorities in Punjab have also dusted down the state's civil defence plans.

Rusty air-raid sirens have been tested, repaired and - where necessary - replaced.

Village defence committees are being revived and local hospitals restocked with essential medical supplies.

Some defence experts say the military build-up along the Punjab border is the biggest since the 1971 India-Pakistan war.

But for many in the border villages who have been forced into a nomadic existence, the war has already begun.