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India to consider military action if
international efforts fail: Advani

Ahead of the visit of two top American officials to India and Pakistan, Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani on Wednesday warned that if international efforts to force Pakistan to stop cross-border terrorism fail, New Delhi would consider the military option.

"The international community still has the power to avert a military conflict. If Washington decides to force Pakistan, it will do it," Advani said in an interview to the The Times daily published from London.

Advani's remarks came just hours before US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was to touch down in Islamabad at the start of a two-day visit that will also take him to New Delhi. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is also scheduled to visit the two countries next week.

"It was no small achievement to make Pakistan betray the Taliban. After all, the Taliban was their creation. Should international efforts fail to bring an end to Pakistani-backed militancy in Kashmir, India would make up its own mind about resorting to military action," he was quoted as saying.

India, he said, believes that militant activity would restart once the international spotlight on Kashmir fades.

"Stoppage of infiltration does not satisfy us. They [Pakistan] can afford to do that for a couple of months," Advani said.

Stating that the threat of war still remained, Advani said measures taken by President Pervez Musharraf to stop militants crossing into Kashmir were tactical moves made under duress.

"Pakistan is taking certain decisions in respect of terrorism under pressure and those too only as tactical moves, which can be reversed after some time", he said.

Advani said his suspicions had been confirmed by Indian intelligence officials monitoring militant activity in Kashmir.

"We have intercepts that indicate these are tactical moves," he said.

Advani said extradition of the 20 terrorists wanted by India is the litmus test for Islamabad to show its sincerity.

"The only way that Pakistan can help to defuse the tensions will be to extradite 20 terrorist suspects - 14 Indian Muslims and six Pakistanis - who are believed to have sought asylum in Pakistan," the home minister said.

"I regard it as a litmus test of Pakistan's sincerity, that it earnestly means to do what it says," Advani said.

He, however, acknowledged that the war of words between the two countries had calmed in the past few days, a shift he ascribed not to any change on the ground but to the pressure on Musharraf by the international community, especially Britain and the US.

"It is this that has aroused a measure of hope in the Indian people that India may be able to end this undeclared war without having to exercise a military option," he said.

Advani noted that India had held off from launching strikes after the attack on Parliament because of outside pressure. "If India had decided then to take some action in respect of the terrorist camps over the Line of Control, I don't think the world would have blamed India," he said.

"We respect international opinion, but we also feel that so far as India's security is concerned, we have to take our own decisions," he said.

PTI

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