A day after Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee made a statement on India-Pakistan relations in the Lok Sabha, his deputy L.K. Advani declared that Islamabad must stop patronising cross-border terrorism and dismantle terrorist infrastructure. He dismissed speculation that he had differences with Vajpayee over the latter’s peace initiative.Advani, who was addressing party members after launching ‘‘sahyog prokosht’’ (co-operation cell) at BJP headquarters, said: ‘‘Our stand is the same — you have to stop cross-border terrorism. But, we have definitely said that when we insist that cross-border must end, we don’t mean that there can be no friendship. Friendship is possible...But you have to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure first...If you run training camps for terrorists, provide terrorists with weapons, give money to families of terrorists or if you send instructions to terrorists in J-K using the communication networks — if you do not dismantle this infrastructure, how is friendship possible?’’Referring to media speculation about differences with Vajpayee sparked by his absence from Lok Sabha yesterday, Advani said, ‘‘This is a puerile approach. I had informed the PM that since I am busy with work in the ministry, I would not be present in the House. I watched the proceedings on TV.’’
