HVK Archives: ISI agents have infiltrated all states: Advani
ISI agents have infiltrated all states: Advani - The Economic Times
Political Bureau
()
September 21, 1998
Title: ISI agents have infiltrated all states: Advani
Author: Political Bureau
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: September 21, 1998
Union home minister LK Advani today said the Inter Services
Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan had infiltrated agents into an the
states of India and the western world was slowly realising that
the dispute between the two neighbouring nations was not over
territory but stemmed from the fact that the Pakistan government
was indulging in "state sponsored cross border" terrorism.
Addressing his first press conference today in Mumbai after
having taken over as India's home minister, Mr Advani said
discussions with top defence and other intelligence agencies
officials showed that these ISI-trained agents were responsible
for violence in virtually all parts of the country. Only the
intensity of the violence and the number of agents per state
varied, Mr Advani said.
In its fight against such state sponsored terrorism, the Indian
security forces had arrested a large number of terrorists in the
last six months and confiscated arms and ammunitions of all type
>from them. Recently, one such cache had also revealed two
kilograms of cyanide in it. On interrogation, the terrorists had
said they had orders to poison the army mess and kill the army
personnel, Mr Advani revealed.
The home minister reiterated that there was a change in his
earlier propounded doctrine of "hot pursuit" to curb terrorism in
the Jammu and Kashmir region. "Hot pursuit should not be
confused with a pro-active stance," Mr Advani cautioned.
According to him, the hot pursuit policy was a legitimately
accepted one by international forums. However, this policy
should be used to contain conflict and not be a reaction to an
incident, he felt.
On the other hand, a pro-active stance in curbing the menace of
terrorism meant that security forces should be able to identify
and weed out terrorist links and outfits in the country and pay
put to their nefarious designs. have told the security forces
that they should not wait for another incident like the massacre
at Udhampur or Doda to occur before swinging in action. They
should foil any such further attempts," Mr Advani revealed.
Mr Advani felt the very dimensions of the Kashmir problem today
did not encourage the implementation of a "hot pursuit" policy
any more. Squarely laying the blame for the Kashmir problem being
compounded over the decades at the doorstep of the previous
governments, Mr Advani said those governments had handled the
issue with "kid gloves". "They had soft pedalled on the subject
and this had led to the situation as it was today," he said.
The home minister also announced that beginning October, talks
would be held with the J&K chief minister and the defence
minister George Fernandes on the resettlement issue of Kashmiri
Pundits who had fled the valley in the wake of terrorism.
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