Act or perish

Sir, - I agree with Dr. Farooq Abdullah that the time has come for India to take some firm action to root out terrorism. We have been ditched by our so- called neighbour whenever we extended our hand in friendship and for peace.

Dr. Abdullah is right in asking, ``if the U.S. could not wait for a day after Black Tuesday (Sept. 11), are not 12 years too much for testing our patience?'' This question has not been posed by a particular person, but by the masses, and now the Government must come out with an answer.

Lakshmi Kant,

Jharkhand

Sir, - Dr. Farooq Abdullah is fully justified when he says in anguish that ``we are caught between two nations - one (Pakistan) perpetuating gruesome violence against our people and another (India) watching without taking any firm action against them.'' We have not done anything to alter the situation - when Hindu Pandits and Sikhs were massacred earlier or when innocent Muslims have been targeted by terrorists now.

As pointed out by Suchindranath Aiyer (Oct. 5), the U.S. or any other country has not taken cognizance of Kashmir terrorism officially. It is time for us to act with or without international support. Whenever such incidents occur, strongly worded statements are issued by the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, and nothing further happens till another terrorist attack is inflicted.

Before taking any action on Kashmir, there should be a consensus among political parties. A Government formed by the Congress and the BJP should be followed by either a peace process or a civil war for rooting out the terrorists. There is no use appealing to Pakistan for help in dealing with terrorism, since it is well known that they are abetting the insane acts with money, men and weapons.

S. Venugopalan,

Chennai

Sir, - A Chief Minister weeps in the Assembly about his inability to act and at least 20 persons are killed by terrorists each day. The Centre responds by releasing a statement that ``there is a limit to our patience.'' What is the limit? When that limit is reached, everything would have been finished and no lives would be there to save. For each and every terrorist attack, the Government wants to draw international attention and no further action follows. Adding to the woes, our Home Minister is appealing to Pakistan to ``hand over Masood Azhar.'' Are they fools to hand him over to India? If the Indian Government is unable to provide security to the people of Kashmir, why should Kashmir be an integral part of India?

B. Kishore Kumar,

Mannargudi, TN

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