NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD, 18 December — India put its army on high alert along the Pakistan border yesterday and said it was weighing all options including a military response to the assault on its parliament as Islamabad warned New Delhi not to take hasty action and to end the “blame game.”
The top spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf warned New Delhi against attacking its neighbor.
“Pakistan is not Palestine,” Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi was quoted as saying. “We will react if attacked. And will react in a very strong manner,” he was quoted as saying. “In case of attack, India should prepare for a great loss.”
In Azad Kashmir, two persons suspected to have crossed from Indian Kashmir to the Pakistani side were blown up and killed in an explosion near the border, Pakistani police said yesterday.
“We suspect that they might be Indian-backed terrorists who planned to carry out some action here,” said a senior officer, who declined to be named.
The officer told AFP the two were blown into pieces when a powerful explosive device they were carrying went off Sunday night near the village of Biyarian in Bagh district.
In New Delhi, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s security Cabinet discussed the progress of a probe into Thursday’s raid, which India says was backed by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and executed by two Kashmiri groups.
With calls growing from hard-liners for India to strike alleged terrorist training camps in Pakistan, Home Minister L.K. Advani said a final response would be agreed on in consultation with the military.
“After taking into account all the aspects... the political leadership and military leadership would jointly take a decision,” he said in an interview with Aaj Tak television.
“Anybody who challenges the security of the country will have to face the consequences also.”
Islamabad has also offered to carry out a joint investigation with India if New Delhi is willing to share the evidence it has accumulated so far — an offer Advani treated with skepticism.
Qureshi said all Indian allegations were unfounded and fabricated. “We are ready to give a firm assurance that if, on the basis of a joint inquiry, anybody based in Pakistan is found involved in the attack we will proceed against him,” the spokesman said. “Why is India not accepting our offer of holding a joint inquiry into this attack?” he was quoted as saying. “These are baseless accusations wherein efforts are being made to involve Pakistan. We strongly denounce it.”
India’s main opposition Congress party, after initially opposing a possible military strike in Pakistan, yesterday offered Vajpayee’s government a free hand to deal with militancy, which India describes as “cross-border terrorism” from Pakistan. Islamabad denies the charge.
“Congress pledges its support to the government in any well-considered step it may contemplate or take to counter terrorism. There cannot be two views in the country on this question,” party spokesman Jaipal Reddy announced.
The regional Samajwadi (Equality) Party of former Defense Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav also put itself in the hawks’ camp.
“The government must attack the terrorist camps in Pakistan-administered Kashmir,” said Yadav, leaving only India’s Communists to offer words of caution against any cross-border military retaliation.
Fearing that India’s strikes on Azad Kashmir could spark a “full-scale war,” the CPI-M suggested that India should place all the evidence about the attack on parliament before the United Nations and the world community.
“This will provide the necessary backing to the demand that organizations like Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba operating from Pakistan be proceeded against.”
Police in Indian Kashmir said yesterday they had picked up another suspect linked to the attack on parliament, while investigators in New Delhi confirmed the arrest of three more people including a houseowner who had rented rooms to two of the suspects in Thursday’s strike.
A Kashmir police officer said the suspect, Tariq Ahmad, was arrested overnight in Srinagar, the state’s summer capital.
