War clouds have not lifted fully yet

new delhi: senior ministers in the government say the danger of war remains high despite pakistan's claim that it was acting to curb terrorist organisations in its territory. but for the present, they concede, india would act through diplomatic means alone. ''each pakistani action is being qualified by conditions such as a demand for evidence and proof,'' notes a cabinet member.''a regime that threw out a legitimately elected government by a military coup is talking of due process!'', he said, with reference to pakistani officials' declaration that they could act against the terrorists only through the legal process for which they needed evidence. ministers talking to times news network said that they saw the indian response in terms of months and not days. ''we are giving musharraf time to act,'' said one, ''but we are not letting him off the hook.'' he said that the government was particularly concerned over the revelations made by the parliament officer who was arrested for passing information to a pakistani diplomat. ''the pakistani made several inquiries about parliament's security procedures,'' said the minister. ''he may have even been informed that the staff within the building itself were unarmed.'' if this line of investigation yields the 'smoking gun' that links the pakistani government to december 13, things could indeed become serious. the government is currently focusing on seeking the repatriation of terrorists who are indian nationals. ''it would be difficult to persuade them to turn in their own nationals at this stage,'' concedes a senior home ministry official, ''but if they are not willing to return people like dawood, tiger memon or others accused in the bombay blasts, their intentions will be quite clear.'' ministers who assessed the situation at monday and tuesday's cabinet committee on security meetings say that they are quite pleased with the european union response. ''the us is still playing a complicated game, but we understand their compulsions,'' says a minister pointing to defence secretary rumsfeld's remarks that us troops in pakistan could get affected by an indo-pak flareup. the new front the government wants to open is with the chinese and they hope to use the visit of premier zhu rongji in the middle of january to make their point. ''we hope to impress on the chinese the need to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in pakistan, and the important role they can play in this,'' the minister added. as of now, both india and pakistan have completed their mobilisation and indian officials say they are worried over pakistani concentrations in the south, towards kutch where the terrain favours a limited pakistani strike. as of now, india is more inclined to limit any retaliatory action to pakistan occupied kashmir, ''but this is something that can wait since the snow conditions prevent any extensive military movement,'' said a senior defence official.