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Advani sees ISI link to attack
By Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, JAN. 22. Without elaborating, the Union Home Minister, L. K. Advani, today said a group connected with the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan was responsible for the early morning attack on the United States Information Service (USIS) premises in Kolkata.
Making a brief statement on the incident at the concluding session of ``India Today Conclave'' - organised by the India Today Group - Mr. Advani said a senior member of the group which had recently kidnapped a Kolkata businessman had claimed responsibility for the attack. The person, he added, claimed to be calling from Dubai.
Condemning today's attack on the USIS, Mr. Advani said he had spoken to the West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, and was in touch with the U.S. Embassy. Also, a Home Ministry official had been deputed to Kolkata and ``necessary security at other such targets is also being provided''.
Dwelling on Indo-Pakistan relations in his valedictory address on ``My India: Vision for the Future'', Mr. Advani articulated his hope of ``India and Pakistan coming together in a confederal framework in the future''. Of the view that this is not an ``impossible dream'', he said: ``India, Pakistan and Bangladesh can continue to remain separate and sovereign nations and yet voluntarily opt for expanding the areas of cooperation''.
Asked whether he supported the conversion of the Line of Control into the International Border, the Minister underlined the fact that the LoC was the result of an act of aggression while the whole of Jammu and Kashmir was ``constitutionally and legitimately'' an integral part of India. Describing J&K as a case of ``missed opportunities'', he painted an ideal situation as one in which both countries accepted the differences in perception, gave up hostilities and engaged in a dialogue.
To a question on whether the ``eyeball-to-eyeball'' situation between India and Pakistan would prolong indefinitely, Mr. Advani answered in the negative. Stating that the Cabinet Committee on Security was constantly reviewing the situation, he said a final decision on the troops positioned along the border would depend on Pakistan's action on India's list of terrorists and status of infiltration into the country.
Earlier, he reiterated the stated position that Pakistan should stop ``training, arming, financing, and providing asylum to terrorists, and facilitating their infiltration into India'' as a condition for dialogue. Urging Pakistan to give up its hostile attitude towards India, he said ``cross-border terrorism crossed the Lakshman-rekha on December 13. It was an attack on the temple of our democracy and we decided that our response to cross-border terrorism was going to be different from what it has been.''
Meanwhile, the Congress, the CPI, the CPI(M) and the CPI(ML) condemned the attack on the USIS and hoped that the Centre and the State would coordinate their efforts to book the culprits. The attack was also condemned as a deliberate attempt to disrupt the peaceful atmosphere of the State.
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