Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has warned that militant attacks such as this week's storming of a disputed religious site in northern Ayodhya town could disrupt the peace process with Pakistan, media reports said yesterday.
"Certainly these incidents, [if] they get repeated -- have the potential to disrupt the peace process. All concerned have a commitment to make it irreversible," Singh told Indian reporters on board a flight to Scotland to attend the G8 summit.
Six people were killed Tuesday when militants blasted their way into a heavily-guarded religious complex in Ayodhya and attempted to attack a makeshift temple to Hindu deity Ram built by Hindu zealots in 1992 after they demolished an ancient mosque.
PHOTO: AP
While police had said the six were all militants, media reports yesterday, quoting family members and local police, said one in fact had been a local tour guide who had been hired by the attackers to show them around the compound.
Police have not disclosed the identities of the gunmen, saying they have yet to determine which militant group was behind the assault.
Singh, who termed the incident a "terrorist attack," stopped short of directly blaming Pakistan but said India's arch rival had to do more to dismantle the "infrastructure for terrorism."
"The terror attack in the makeshift temple in Ayodhya was a major incident and there is no doubt that the infrastructure for terrorism [in Pakistan] is by and large intact," he was quoted by Indian newspapers as saying.
He asked Pakistan, with whom India has been engaged in peace talks over disputed Kashmir since January last year, to honor its commitment to end "terrorism" in India.
"Both the President [Pervez] Musharraf and I have committed ourselves ... to make the peace process irreversible. I sincerely hope the commitment is honored. The major element in this is that terrorism should be under control," Singh said.
India accuses Pakistan of sponsoring Islamic rebels who have been waging an anti-India rebellion in Kashmir since 1989 at the cost of at least 44,000 lives, but Islamabad merely says it offers moral and diplomatic support to militants it regards as freedom fighters engaged in a struggle for self-determination.
In the past, New Delhi has blamed militant groups it alleges are backed by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) for armed strikes not only in Kashmir but in other parts of the country as well.
Pakistan condemned Tuesday's temple attack and a dominant Kashmiri militant group, the Hizbul Mujahideen, has also denied any role in the assault. No group has yet claimed responsibility.
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