M A I N   N E W S

‘India capable of Abbottabad-like strike’
Tribune News Service & PTI

New Delhi, May 4
Even as New Delhi justified the unilateral action by the US to hunt down Osama bin Laden deep inside Pakistan without taking Islamabad into confidence, it indicated that it has no plans to undertake similar strikes against the neighbouring country. But it added that Indian forces were "competent" to carry out a similar operation.

India also stated that the process of dialogue with Pakistan would continue uninterrupted to press Islamabad to act against terror groups and that there was no alternative but to keep Islamabad engaged.

“We have to engage them on various issues, including terrorism,” said top government sources. Asked why India could not carry out the hot pursuit of Dawood Ibrahim and other such terrorists who have taken shelter in Pakistan, sources pointed out that there was a big difference in Pakistan’s equations vis-à-vis the US and India.

However, Army Chief General VK Singh made it clear that the country’s armed forces were "competent" to carry out an operation similar to the one conducted by the US in Pakistan against Osama.

The General was asked whether the Indian forces could successfully carry out Abbottabad-like operation. “I would like to say only this that if such a chance comes, then all the three arms (of the military) are competent to do this," the Army Chief told reporters in Lucknow.

Shortly after the US operation, Air Chief Marshal PV Naik had also said India has the capability to carry out such surgical strikes.

The statements assume significance as there had been demands after 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that India should carry out surgical strikes on terror camps in Pakistan.

But sources said it was not India’s intention to humiliate Pakistan. “We have no intention to bring Pakistan to its knees or to humiliate Pakistan… it is not in anybody’s interest,” they said. “Pakistan is not a pushover… it’s a hard country. After all, we exist back to back with Pakistan. Also, the foreign policy is not wish fulfillment. It has to deal with the realities… We are not being helpless. There is a reasonable, sober way of dealing with the neighbour.”

But Pakistan must realise that it could not adopt a selective approach in dealing with terrorism, sources added.

Describing the killing of Osama as a “momentous development”, sources said the development had, however, not diminished the threat to the global community from international terror syndicates. In this connection, they noted that terror outfits like the LeT, JeM and the Hizbul Mujahideen remained a serious threat for India and Afghanistan.

The fact that Laden was living in a large mansion in Abbottabad has vindicated New Delhi’s stand that terrorism could not be eliminated without the elimination of safe havens in Pakistan.