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A manifestation of Pakistan's terror promotion activity: Fernandes

Pokhran Dec. 27. India today said the recent assassination bid on the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf was nothing but a manifestation of that country's terrorism promotion activity.

``We had been publicly telling Pakistan that those who start terrorism, can end up facing it themselves. Now look what has happened," the Defence Minister, George Fernandes, said here.

Addressing jawans of the 34 armoured brigade manning the India-Pakistan border, he said that while facing the onslaught of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, India had always maintained that terrorists did not have any ``jaat, dharam, desh or pradesh'' (caste, religion, nation or state).

``Terrorist is just a terrorist. He only knows how to spread violence. We told Pakistan. However, they did not listen to us. Now the same terrorists had made attempts to kill the Pakistan President and that too near the country's capital, Islamabad,'' he said.

Mr. Fernandes attributed the latest ceasefire at Pakistan's initiative as a consequence of the hard work put in by the Indian soldiers. ``It is because of your contribution to the successful manning of the border that Pakistan initiated the ceasefire."

Though the guns had now fallen silent and shelling stopped, there was no significant reduction in infiltration, he said. Pakistan was still providing money, training and weapons to terrorists to spread violence.

Nonetheless, with the ceasefire continuing to hold for the past one month, there were reasons to be optimistic about the outcome of the SAARC summit in Islamabad next week, Mr. Fernandes said. However, it was very difficult to predict the outcome of the summit. ``Only time will tell."

The Defence Minister distributed Christmas cakes to the soldiers. — PTI

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