LONDON Jan 23: A leading British daily, The Telegraph, on Wednesday took exception to Indian home minister L. K. Advani’s allegations against Pakistan’s involvement in the Kolkata attack and said he must have “good evidence” before doing so.

“L.K. Advani, the home minister, acted irresponsibly by implying, without good evidence, that Pakistan’s secret service was in cahoots with Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami, established 10 years ago in India’s eastern neighbour, in executing the Kolkata attack,” said widely-circulated British daily The Telegraph in a hard-hitting editorial captioned “India must stay calm” on Wednesday.

It said President General Pervez Musharraf has ordered “arrest of about 2,000 radicals, banned five of their organizations and, most important, announced that the Madressahs, or religious schools, the seedbeds of bigotry, are to be brought under control”.

Supporting the action taken by President Musharraf, it said: “It is also essential to the survival of Pakistan as the tolerant state envisioned by its founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.”

The Telegraph called for opening stalled dialogue between Islamabad and New Delhi to avert a possible nuclear escalation given the presence of conventional military balance tilting in favour of India.

“War would be disastrous for either neighbour. It could soon escalate to a nuclear exchange. Such an unimaginable horror should strengthen the cooler heads on either side”.

“The sooner the dialogue between him (Musharraf) and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Indian prime minister, resumes, the better,” said the daily.

“India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed, are confronting each other with an intensity not seen since the mid-1980s. It would be tragic if the lives of millions of people were to be put at risk by a handful of Muslim fanatics,” said the paper.

The Indian government, “which is dominated by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, is facing a key electoral test next month in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of the union. Can a democracy under such assault resist public pressure to go to war?” questioned the daily.

“The situation has been made more volatile by the government’s having painted itself into a corner through consistently refusing to accept that the action taken by Pakistan against militants is sufficient,” it said .

Another British daily The Times commenting on the Kolkata attack said yesterday saw the “now-standard exchange of claims and rebuttals”. India’s home minister, L.K. Advani’s allegations of involvement by a Pakistani-based militant group was rejected as “nonsense.” The attack on the cultural centre, a US government building, wounded 18 officers and two civilians.

“The group said this was nonsense; Pakistan denied any ISI links,” said the daily Times.

Titled “Kashmir eclipses India’s other terror” The Times in its comments added, “India’s fear that the world’s largest democracy will fragment under these assaults is the motivation for which it will get most sympathy abroad”. —APP