Govt hardens stand in wake of attack

Now that the Pakistani Army has been “forced to withdraw”from Kargil, sources in the government said, “they are attempting to open up another front in the Kashmir valley. This is the second phase of the Pakistani operation,” they added.

An official spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs also described the Kargil aggression as a “betrayal of trust (which) revealed abiding hostility. It would therefore be idle to pretend that this experience has not set back India-Pakistan relations.”

Short of setting theabandonment of cross-border terrorism as a precondition for talks with Islamabad, New Delhi nevertheless asserted today that it was a “major determinant” that was preventing the return to the talks process.

“The sponsorship of cross-border terrorism is a violation of the Line of Control,” the spokesman said.

The government sources confirmed that the Al-Badr terrorist outfit, dubbed by Deputy Director-General of the Border Security Force (BSF) Mohammed Ziaullah here today as the group responsible for the killings and hostage-taking in Bandipore, had links with Osama bin Laden, the Saudi terrorist under Taliban protection in Afghanistan.

“Some of Al-Badr’s men, which is a breakaway group from the Jamiat-i-Islami, have been trained in the same camps where Osama’s people have been trained,” the sources said.

The ministry spokesman said the Bandipore incident was “yet another reminder of Pakistan’s brazen and continuing sponsorship of terrorism.”

“Pakistan will have to abandon this path ofencouraging and abetting terrorism and dismantle the entire network set up in Pakistani territory for the purpose.”

Asked what the motive behind the incident could be, the spokesman simply said: “Terror.”

He went on to confirm the sequence of steps that will govern all future dealings with Pakistan, of which the first is a total withdrawal by the first light of July 16. “Till this is not done, no other steps will be taken,” he said.

Next, Pakistan would have to reaffirm the inviolability and sanctity of the Line of Control. The Lahore process would be incumbent on taking all these steps, he added.

Meanwhile in Islamabad, the chief of the Al-Badr group Bakht Zameen Khan described the withdrawal from Kargil as a “sin”, adding that “Sartaj Aziz had humiliated the mujahideen and put Pakistan’s security at risk… now we will have to go for a decisive fight.”