"It is (the Kathua incident) a replica of earlier attacks in the same region. So, is the level of alertness little lowered?" he asked at a press conference here.
"It is quite possible that they may want to create disturbances on election eve," Jaitley said and referred to the recent arrest of two Pakistani-origin terrorists from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.
He said the pattern of attack is similar. "The pattern each time is similar. They come from across the border, wear army uniform, hijack civilian vehicle, kill some civilians and then attack army camp... What is the reason?" he asked.
Jaitley, BJP candidate from the Amritsar parliamentary constituency, said Pakistan would have to understand that if its territory is used for repeated terror attacks against India then there "will be lot of difficulties in normalisation of bilateral relations".
Asked if "hot pursuit" was needed to deal with such incidents, Jaitley said, "It is an option at a given stage. Hot pursuit is never option one... And it is to be decided by strategic thinkers and security forces.
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