India has said that it is likely retaliate if another terror attack on its soil is linked to members of Pakistan’s security apparatus. Defence minister M M Pallam Raju said at a regional security conference in Singapore that self-restraint would be hard to justify to the Indian people if there was another attack similar to the one in Mumbai in 2008 that killed more than 160 people.
“The Indian government’s response was restrained despite the public calls to hit back over the November 2008 attacks blamed on a Pakistan-based guerrilla group, but it would be difficult to withstand the pressure again”, media reports quoted Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju as saying telling a security conference.
“If a provocation is to happen again, it would be hard to justify to our people self restraint, and I hope that it will not be repeated and that we will have a constructive dialogue with Pakistan in containing these terrorist elements which are causing strife not only in India but also within Pakistan,” Raju said.
Raju said revelations made by a Pakistani-American who has confessed to scouting targets for the Mumbai attacks in a trial in Chicago in which he linked the attacks to the ISI have made it harder to show restraint in future.
“The international community is aware of the damning evidence that has come out from David Headley during his interrogation,” Raju told the conference in Singapore.
