NEW DELHI, Sept 15: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has said India will have to choose its own option if the international community fails to persuade Pakistan to do more to stop alleged cross-border terrorism into Jammu and Kashmir.

Press Trust of India, in a dispatch from New York, quoted Vajpayee as saying that Islamabad was bent on sabotaging the assembly polls starting in Kashmir on Monday.

Addressing members of the Congress from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut on Saturday night, Vajpayee said: “If the international community is unable to persuade Pakistan, India will have to find its own ways to achieve its objective.”

India had joined the international coalition against terrorism in the belief that only a global and comprehensive effort would help eliminate this menace. While the coalition has made considerable headway in Afghanistan “a lot more needs to be done further east” on the Pakistan’s border with India, he pointed out.

India is determined to stamp out terrorism as the US was doing since Sept 11 last year to protect itself from Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, Vajpayee was quoted as saying.

“He squarely blamed Islamabad for the continued tension in South Asia because of its failure to go through the promises made by President Pervez Musharraf,” PTI said.

Vajpayee said infiltration across India’s borders had increased and, most important, every effort was being made to sabotage the elections in Jammu and Kashmir by intimidating voters and threatening candidates.

India, he said, attached the greatest importance to free, fair and peaceful elections in Jammu and Kashmir and was taking every possible measure to ensure this even in the face of terrorist attacks orchestrated by Pakistan’s ISI.

He said tension in South Asia was continuing because Pakistan had not lived up to the commitments made by President Pervez Musharraf.