India has few options

new delhi: even though the mood in the country for a punch-up with pakistan is high for its role in the december 13 attack on parliament, military officials and diplomats say the options before india are limited. a better alternative, they say, would be a diplomatic offensive demanding the return from pakistan of jaish-e-mohammed chief masood azhar, whom india was compelled to free in exchange for the release of the passengers of the hijacked ic 814 indian airlines flight to kandahar in december 1999.''demanding azhar's return gives islamabad a chance to claim that they are fighting terrorism without appearing to bow to india's demarche,'' says a serving diplomat, pointing out that pakistan has already banned jaish. if india's campaign is backed with good evidence, pakistan will have to comply and the process would result in driving a bigger wedge between the pakistan army and the jihadis. the government of india has so far not done anything more than mouth-tough rhetoric. after opposing a legislation to fight terrorism, leaders like mulayam singh yadav and v p singh are now joining the bjp hawks in calling on the government to bomb terrorist training camps in pok. but almost all military officials agree that the country lacks the military capacity to conduct punitive strikes on pakistani territory. ''india cannot and should not emulate the us or israel,'' says a retired diplomat. an army general confirms this. ''it took two divisions of infantry and an artillery division to evict a brigade worth of intruders from their positions in the kargil heights. so you can calculate what it would take to push into pok against prepared pakistani army positions.'' any movement minus air superiority over the area would be suicidal, the general adds. this is what obtains in the case of the us and taliban and israel and the palestinians, but ''this is not the situation between india and pakistan.'' he points out that india lost three fighter aircraft in kargil even though the pakistan air force was out of the picture. after claiming that indian agencies masterminded the attack, pakistani official spokesman maj-gen rashid qureshi backed off and said there ought to be a joint inquiry into the event. meanwhile, pakistan's president pervez musharraf has warned india against any adventurism. india's dilemma has been compounded by the ambiguous us position. secretary of state colin powell has recognised india's right to undertake any action for its legitimate self-defence, but has said that new delhi needs to exercise restraint.