Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes sought a global commitment to force Pakistan to crackdown on terrorism on Sunday, warning that New Delhi faced ”intense” pressure to launch an attack on terrorists in the disputed Kashmir region.
Cross-border incursions in Kashmir were part of the same war on terrorism born from the September 11 attacks in the United States and deserved the same international response, he told an Asia security conference here.
As the United Nations and several countries began withdrawing diplomatic staff from South Asia in the face of growing war rhetoric, Fernandes accused Pakistan of fuelling fears by ”threatening to use weapons of mass destruction”.
The escalating war talk followed two decades of a ”proxy war of low intensity conflict” in which more than 60 000 Indians have been killed as India faced a ”deadly pattern of cross border terrorism.”
India had shown restraint and ”refrained from bombing the swamp that was breeding terrorists,” he said.
The January pledge by Pakistan Pervez Musharraf to crackdown on terrorism following a deadly attack on the Indian parliament was ”merely cosmetic” and cross-border attacks have continued.
”The country is angry and anguished,” Fernandes said.
”The pressure on our PM, Mr Vajpayee to launch an attack on terrorists is intense. But we have held back.”
Addressing about 150 defence ministers and policy makers from North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, Fernandes said there had been in recent days an ”intemperate assertion from Islamabad that Pakistan may use nuclear weapons if India takes military action.
”We must look at why Pakistan is… threatening to use weapons of mass destruction… is this not an attempt to blackmail India and the rest of the global community.”
Fernandes said the terrorist issues facing India were part of the global war on terrorism being led by the United States.
”I believe the global community, led by the USA can prevail upon Pakistan to live up to its responsibilities,” he said. ”India will not be impulsive, neither will we waver in our determination for the simple reason that what we have been fighting and will continue to fight is the war against terrorism, the same terrorism that hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.” – Sapa-AFP