NEW DELHI, Aug 3: Ruling out any de-escalation in the military standoff with Pakistan for now, Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes claimed on Saturday that the armed attack on Indian parliament in December last year, which triggered the current crisis, was planned to assassinate the prime minister.

“The main aim of the parliament attack was to eliminate the political leadership of the country, including Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, and now Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani,” Press Trust of India quoted Fernandes as saying in Srinagar.

“One terrorist was gunned down while heading towards gate number five which means his target was the prime minister. Three others were killed in front of gate number nine, indicating that home minister, and now the deputy prime minister, was also targeted,” Fernandes claimed.

This appears to be the first time that the two top Indian leaders have been named as the specific target of the gunmen who raided the heavily guarded building on Dec 13, which has come to be cited by New Delhi as the proverbial last straw that brought about the two countries to threaten the region with a nuclear exchange in June.

“De-escalation is something which is a very big issue,” the defence minister maintained on Saturday as he visited battle-ready troops and spoke to their commanders. “One can talk of de-escalation when the overall situation gets normalized.”

India and Pakistan have amassed more than a million troops along their borders, including the Line of Control (LoC), since the December incident. New Delhi blamed the attack on Pakistan militants and two groups charged with the attack were banned by Pakistan.

India says it will withdraw its troops from the borders only when Pakistan stops “cross-border incursion” of militants into Kashmir. Islamabad’s stand that crossing of militants from the Line of Control into occupied Kashmir is denied by New Delhi.

“As far as the infiltration is concerned there are ups and downs,” said Fernandes.