New Delhi, December 16
Former chief of the Army Staff, Gen V.P. Malik, today observed that India must keep all options, including military strikes at militant camps, against Pakistan open in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks on Mumbai.

"We should not say we are ruling out the military option. At least, there should not have been a public statement," Malik said at a symposium on “The Attack on Mumbai and Indo-Pak Relations”. He was referring to Defence Minister A.K. Antony's remarks earlier in the day ruling out the military option. "Alike Kabul attacks, ISI had a hand in Mumbai attacks too. The ISI is the creation of the Pakistani army," he said, while underlining that Mumbai attacks could not have happened without "official conspiracy or complicity".

Former prime minister I.K. Gujral, senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh, former national security adviser Brajesh Mishra, former Indian ambassador to US Naresh Chandra and strategic expert K. Subramanian were the other participants.

Mishra suggested India should persuade Washington to cut off military and financial aid to the Pakistani Army. He was of the view that Pakistan's military should be reined in the ISI placed under the civilian control. "There are options available that can make US, UK and other major powers look at the problem from the point of view of India," Mishra said, advocating a more focused approach for bringing meaningful international pressure on Pakistan that would force it to dismantle terrorist infrastructure. "Unless their (Western powers) strategy is affected by your action, they will not act in your favour," he said.

Gujral, like any other politician, struck a note of caution saying New Delhi should not forget that both India and Pakistan were nuclear powers. He recalled that when he was the Prime Minister in 1997, former US ambassador to Pakistan Robert Oakley had conveyed to him through the Indian envoy that Pakistan would use nuclear weapons against India as its first option in the event of war, if ever.

Jaswant Singh, the former External Affairs minister, linked terrorism in South Asia with the failure of the US policy in the region. "The Taliban was a creation of the US. It was established by Pakistan Army with the assistance of the US," Singh said.