India's military is putting pressure on the coalition of the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, for permission to strike militant training camps in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. It claims last week's attack on the country's parliament was launched from where.
The Foreign Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, when asked if India was contemplating a military option against Pakistan, said the Home Minister, Mr Lal Krishen Advani, would make a statement today after the cabinet committee on security ended its meeting.
Chaired by Mr Vajpayee, the committee, which is India's highest security decision-making body, met a day after Mr Advani hinted that the government was open to the option of "hot pursuit" to track down Pakistan-based terrorists.
"Those who threaten our security will have to pay the price," he told the Star TV news channel yesterday. The government would be judged by its actions, not its words, he said.
Opposition Congress party MPs said they would concur with "whatever" the government decided.
India says that two Pakistan-backed militant groups, fighting the 12-year insurgency raging in Kashmir, are responsible for the December 13th suicide attack against Delhi's parliament house in which 13 people died.
Its investigations revealed that Pakistani intelligence was behind the five militants from the Jaish- e-Mohammadi (Army of Mohammed) group, supported by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure), who were responsible for the assault.
Pakistan has dismissed India's claims and rejects demands that it ban the two groups, arrest their leaders and seize their assets.
A military officer, declining to be named, said senior service officers had told the government that any hesitation to hit nuclear rival Pakistan "hard" after last week's suicide attack would be "expensive" for India. Not retaliating would also demoralise the armed forces.
The US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, has asked India to desist from a military strike as tension between the two nuclear rivals had the potential of "becoming very dangerous" .
The US deputy Secretary of State, Mr Richard Armitage, recently called Kashmir the "most dangerous place in the world" because it was contested by two nuclear powers which were constantly "shooting, shouting and glaring at one another".
