INDIA YESTERDAY scrambled to deal with neighbour Pakistan, from which it claimed last week's terrorist strike in Mumbai emanated writes RAHUL BEDIin New Delhi
Reversing his earlier stand, Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee said India reserved the right to take military action if its territory was under threat.
"I am not making comments on military options. But every sovereign country has a right to protect its territorial integrity and take appropriate action as and when it feels necessary," Mr Mukherjee told India's NDTV news channel yesterday.
He said elements from within Pakistan had carried out the synchronised shooting spree in Mumbai that centred on two hotels, a Jewish centre, train terminus and cafe and that claimed more than 180 lives. He said it was Islamabad's responsibility to understand India's anger and to deal with it suitably and effectively.
Mr Mukherjee also said that under the circumstances it was "difficult" to continue the four-year bilateral peace process with Pakistan.
According to reports from Islamabad, India's sabre-rattling had only led to Pakistanis rallying together against the imminent threat. "The Taliban and its associated al-Qaeda cadres fighting the Pakistani army in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan had reportedly offered the military a ceasefire in case they needed to redeploy to fight the Indians on the eastern front," Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid said yesterday.
Indian threats had united all Pakistanis, he added.
Since independence 61 years ago, the two countries have fought three wars and an 11-week border war in 1999 that threatened to escalate into a nuclear exchange.
The neighbours also mobilised their armies in 2002 following an attack on India's parliament, which, like the Mumbai strikes, was blamed on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-i-Taiba (LiT) Islamist group that has been battling Indian rule in the disputed Jammu and Kashmir province.
Pakistani prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told CNN that his government wanted proof of the allegations from India that Pakistani nationals were involved.
"If they will give us evidence, we are committed that we will extend full co-operation," he said.
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice arrives in Delhi today to try to defuse tension and avert "adventurism" by either side. US president-elect Barack Obama has assured India of Washington's "steadfast support" in catching the perpetrators of the attacks and said Delhi had the sovereign right to defend itself against terrorists.
India's cabinet committee on security, the top decision-making body on military and diplomatic affairs, met in New Delhi to debate ways to tackle the aftermath of the attack, including the option to send a "firm" message to Pakistan.
Basing their information on the testimony of the lone gunman who was apprehended last Wednesday, Indian investigators said all 10 militants who carried out the strikes were indoctrinated, trained in military craft and launched by the LiT based in Muridke, near the eastern Pakistani border city of Lahore.
Mumbai police commissioner Hassan Gafoor said yesterday the terrorists were in constant touch with their LiT "handlers" in Lahore during the attack.
Conversing in their native Punjabi, the gunmen were instructed in guerrilla tactics, firing discipline, and strategies to outmanoeuvre commandos inside the cavernous hotels.
In one instance the attackers, subsisting on a diet of cocaine and possibly LSD, were ordered by their "control" to kill their hostages, after which one of the terrorists lined up 17 guests at the Trident Oberoi hotel and shot them.
Criticism, meanwhile, mounted over India's inability to act on precise intelligence provided by its domestic security agencies and even by the US regarding the impending strike on Mumbai.