Fernandes Warns Pakistan On N-War

Taking serious note of Islamabad's nuclear blackmail, India today warned it against any nuclear misadventure, saying disastrous repercussions would occur when India responds to such attack.

No Pakistani would be left live, said a fuming defence minister in his address at Partnership Summit here.

"We'll will suffer, a little. We can take a bomb or two or more... but when we respond there'll be no Pakistan," Fernandes said in his fitting response to Pakistan president Musharraf's recent utterances.

Sharing his observations at a plenary session on 'Military Strategy: Fighting the Unseen Enemy,' he saw no end to cross-border terrorism in the near future.

Drawing the global attention to the sinister designs of the left-over groups of Al Qaeda and Taliban to regroup and cause carnage in Kashmir, the defence minister said Pakistan was behind these splinter forces.

Giving a religious dimension to the terrorist acts had been hampering the job of armed forces due to increasing alienation of the local youth, he explained.

A sense of neglect caused by failed promises was the root cause of terrorism in J&K and the North-East and with religious forces coming into the play, there was no uniform military strategy that could be applied across the country to contain the menace.

He, however, added that the country's armed forces were capable of tackling the grave situation.

The NDA government was fully seized of the problem and took steps to better equip the defence forces which had actually seen their budget outlays cut by the previous governments, Fernandes said, taking a dig at the opposition. The defence minister hit out at the US.

"You can't take a terrorist state along with you to fight against terrorism and score a victory over it... I know these are harsh words.