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India's prime minister says war is under discussion

NEW DELHI, India (AP) — India's prime minister said on Wednesday that the government is discussing war, as well as diplomacy, as a response to last week's suicide attack on Parliament that it blames on Pakistan-based militants.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee told India's Parliament that Pakistani officials know there are forces within Pakistan that are taking part in terrorism. He repeated India's demand that it crack down on them.

"We are trying to address this diplomatically, but other options are also open, too," Vajpayee said during a debate over Thursday's assault on the legislative compound that left 13 people, including the attackers, dead.

India says all five attackers were Pakistanis and that the neighboring country's intelligence service sponsored the attack. Pakistan has denied the charge and both nations' armies are reported to be on alert.

"The question is not whether there should be a war or not," Vajpayee said. "The question to be debated is in what circumstances there could be a war."

"Those who advise us restraint should talk to our neighbor," Vajpayee said. "The sovereignty and integrity of the country has been challenged."

India has demanded that Pakistan halt all activities by two Islamic militant groups, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, arrest their leaders and freeze their assets. New Delhi said the two groups, with the support of Pakistan's intelligence service, planned and carried out the assault on Parliament.

Pakistan has rejected allegations that it sponsored the attack, saying India was trying to avoid talks over the disputed Kashmir region which has bedeviled relations between the South Asian neighbors for five decades.

Pakistani officials have said they would participate in an impartial investigation, but would take no action without proof. Vajpayee called the demand for a joint investigation "ridiculous."

"What proof do we need?" Vajpayee said. "The bullet marks on the Parliament walls, the bodies of the terrorists, who were Pakistani nationals, this is the proof by itself."

Since their division into separate nations after British independence in 1947, Islamic Pakistan and Hindu-majority India have fought three wars, two of them over their competing claims to the Himalayan region of mostly Muslim Kashmir.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001

Answers

"What proof do we need?" Vajpayee said. "The bullet marks on the Parliament walls, the bodies of the terrorists, who were Pakistani nationals, this is the proof by itself."

All that shows is that they were Pakistani. doesn't indicate that the government sanctioned the attack.

Since their division into separate nations after British independence in 1947, Islamic Pakistan and Hindu-majority India have fought three wars, two of them over their competing claims to the Himalayan region of mostly Muslim Kashmir.

leave kashmir alone. The US will take care of that one.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001