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India was never close to a strike, says Fernandes

NEW DELHI JUNE 14 . The Defence Minister, George Fernandes, has said that India could have launched a strike against Pakistan but ``we were never at that point''.

``We could have launched a strike. But we were never at that point. At any given time if the need had arisen, the Army could have struck,'' Mr. Fernandes said in an interview to The Week.

About apprehensions in Pakistan that India was close to a strike, he said that showed the panic in their ranks. ``We were never at a point where we would have pulled the trigger''.

On the proposal for joint patrolling of the Line of Control to stop infiltration, he said ``these things will take time. I don't think it is an immediate possibility. We have to do a lot of confidence-building before we reach that stage''.

Mr. Fernandes said knowing the terrain, joint patrolling indicated that both sides go about it jointly, taking up responsibility to see that there was no militant activity.

``At the moment, our troops are eyeball-to-eyeball. At one end our men are dying at the hands of terrorists and at the other we also have terrorists who are coming in and our troops are fighting them,'' he said, adding that joint patrolling could be undertaken only when there was a relationship built on confidence between the soldiers of the two sides.

PTI

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