NEW DELHI, Jan 13: India has warned Pakistan that it cannot hope to ever get Kashmir by instigating cross-border terrorism, news reports said on Monday.

Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani said: “Cross-border terrorism has made the internal security situation a warlike situation.”

Advani also expressed the need for action against Pakistanis overstaying in India and the alleged illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Press Trust of India quoted Advani as speaking of the kinds of threats faced by the country internally “because of Pakistan or because of the attitude of our eastern neighbour in respect of indigenous terrorist groups who take asylum and set up camps in neighbouring countries”.

“Nations like Pakistan aid and abet terrorism,” he added.

External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, speaking on BBC, said the world now accepted the fact that cross-border terrorism had nothing to do with the people of Kashmir and it was just an act to ‘weaken’ the country.

Participating in BBC World Service Hindi weekly special phone-in programme on Sunday night, he said: “We have sent a clear message to Pakistan and the international community that Pakistan cannot capture Jammu and Kashmir by cross-border terrorism.”

Sinha acknowledged that there had been a decline in the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir as a sequel to deployment of the army on the borders.

“The visible result (after deployment of troops) was that the President of Pakistan (Pervez Musharraf) himself said on more than one occasions that he was committed to fighting against terrorism, he would not support any terrorist activity in Kashmir — this assurance we got. There has been a decline in the insurgency in Kashmir,” Sinha said.—Jay Enn