Lashkar footprint, Govt controls rage

In Delhi, Defence Minister and NDA convenor George Fernandes told reporters after an NDA meeting tonight: ‘‘The National Democratic Alliance condemns unequivocally the latest act of inhuman barbarity committed in Jammu on July 13 against the innocent and unarmed men, women and children.’’

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), which held a two-hour meeting earlier in the day before Advani’s departure for Jammu, had also condemned the ‘‘horrendous’’ crime. Later in the evening, Advani was back in the capital for the NDA meeting.

Sources said that though there was a clear indication of Pakistan’s role behind the Jammu killings, the CCS desisted from indulging in any rhetoric against Islamabad to avoid getting into a bind. However, before the CCS meeting, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha told a news channel: ‘‘All this is happening with the inspiration of Pakistan.’’ British foreign secretary Jack Straw spoke to Sinha on the phone from China.

The CCS was told that preliminary findings pointed to the involvement of Laskar-e-Toiba — J-K DG of Police A K Suri confirmed this today — and that the attack was intended to foment communal strife to derail the assembly elections, scheduled before October this year. ‘‘There are many Muslim areas near the attack site,’’ sources pointed out.

So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the attack and the sources said it was unlikely that any outfit would do so even later. Recent intercepts from across-the-border indicate instructions have been issued that henceforth all attacks in Srinagar should be attributed to a terrorist outfit, Al Mansuran, and in Jammu to Al Madina. ‘‘This is an attempt to keep the listed outfits out of the picture,’’ the sources said.

The massacre has also been carried out with an eye on Amarnath Yatra and create a bedlam in Parliament which begins the monsoon session tomorrow, the sources said.

One of the items on the agenda for the CCS meeting, which had been scheduled much before the Jammu killings, was a review of the various parameters on cross-border terrorism to decide India’s next step.

‘‘The brief showed that all parameters pointed to no abatement of cross-border terrorism. The message of the review was that there should be no further step to de-escalate the situation,’’ sources said.

The committee reviewed the situation in the backdrop of the assembly elections. ‘‘The Government’s effort would be to tighten security in the state and hold elections as scheduled,’’ the sources said.