Author: Tara Shankar
Sahay
Date: Rediff on Net
Date: August 11, 2000
Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee and Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani are under pressure
from a section of the Ministry of Defence to take "decisive action" against
Pakistan to end militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.
"How long will India
tolerate army personnel in J&K being made militants' targets in so
galling a fashion, wherein militants make cowardly attacks and then disappear,"
said an MoD official.
He told rediff.com that
army casualties included officers and jawans from various religious communities.
Relatives of the victims wanted the government to take "drastic action"
against Pakistan, the chief instigator of the militants, he pointed out.
He said many MoD officials
had conveyed their sense of disgust at frequent attacks by the militants
to Vajpayee and Advani, demanding that Islamabad be taught a decisive lesson
once and for all.
This section of the MoD
has stressed that information gleaned internationally indicated that despite
boastful assertions, Pakistan does not have the delivery system to use
nuclear bombs against India.
Thursday's improvised
explosive device blast in Srinagar, which claimed 13 lives, including that
of a photo-journalist, and injured many others, has come as the proverbial
last straw to this section, which wants the government to act before "we
undergo any further humiliation."
Ministry of External
Affairs sources confirmed that Vajpayee, during his visit to the United
States in September, will apprise permanent United Nations Security Council
members US, Russia, United Kingdom, France, and China that enough is enough
and it is time Pakistan stopped under-estimating India's capability to
thwart provocation.
They pointed out that
Vajpayee would tell leaders of the international community that another
militant attack on innocent people in J&K would elicit a strong response
from his government.
"No, we are not saying
that war clouds are gathering, but another provocation by the militants
and Pakistan will pay dearly for it, " sources emphasised. They did
not elaborate.
The US, UK, other European
countries and Japan condemned the recent killings in Kashmir, holding Pakistan
responsible for instigating the massacres. This has been stressed
by government officials, who are clamouring for Pakistan to be taught a
lesson it is not likely to forget
Ministry of Home Affairs
officials, including special secretaries Tilak Raj Kakkar and Mukund Bihari
Kaushal are understood to have reported that messages from across the border
are consistently being intercepted, whereby the authorities in Islamabad
are egging on terrorist groups to continue attacking Indian army and civilian
targets.
"No doubt, it's an explosive
situation and our leadership is well apprised of it. But we will
not take any hasty decisions because if we are forced to act, it will be
decisive," the sources pointed out.
