Stop all talks with Pakistan, BJP tells Govt

Top BJP leaders want India to harden its stand vis-a-vis Pakistan

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday asked the government to give Pakistan a "befitting reply" for killing five Indian soldiers and to stop all dialogue with the neighbouring country.

"These incidents are not taking place in isolation. We had incidents of soldiers being beheaded, we had Sarabjit (Singh, who died in a Pakistan prison)... we have a series of incidents of cross border terrorism," leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said in the upper house after Defence Minister A.K. Antony made a suo moto statement on the incident.

"India needs to modulate its foreign policy to tell Pakistan this will not be accepted. The time has come to give a befitting reply," Jaitley said.

He also slammed the defence minister for saying Indian soldiers were killed by terrorists dressed as Pakistani soldiers.

"The minister said people dressed as Pakistani soldiers army killed Indian soldiers. I hope this is not some kind of typographical error," Jaitley said.

"When you say this, you are giving Pakistan a chance to say they were non-state actors. The distinction between state and non-state actors in Pakistan is very ambiguous," he added.

This comes on a day when both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were disrupted over the incident. BJP leaders in Rajya Sabha even shouted slogans saying "Pakistan murdabad".

BJP leaders had said earlier that the government should stop all dialogue with Pakistan.

BJP leaders M. Venkaiah Naidu and Shahnawaz Hussain wanted India to harden its stand vis-a-vis Pakistan.

"The government has been very soft on Pakistan. They are being violent and our government is silent," Naidu said. "It is a state policy of Pakistan... to cripple India."

"India should immediately stop all talks with Pakistan. Relations with neighbours cannot be maintained from one side only," he added.

Hussain said: "Talks with Pakistan should not be held if even one bullet is fired at the border. You can't have our soldiers being killed and then hold talks."

In the Lok Sabha, BJP leader Yashwant Sinha demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh make a statement in the house.

"Since January, there have been continuous attacks. Our army, this parliament, this country has the strength. We should respond in the same way," he said.

Five Indian soldiers were killed and a sixth was wounded when Pakistani troops crossed the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district early Tuesday and ambushed an Indian army patrol.

India and Pakistan are to hold talks as part of their resumed dialogue process later this month.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his new Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif are to meet in New York in September.