SRINAGAR, Sept 26: India’s junior home minister I.D. Swami said here on Thursday that India did not rule out war with Pakistan, as pressure mounted on Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee from rightwing partners in the ruling coalition to act against Islamabad.

The leader of the Hindu extremist Shiv Sena group, Bal Thackeray, went so far as to threaten withdrawal from the National Democratic Alliance if Vajpayee did not act against Pakistan over charges that Islamabad was responsible for Tuesday’s massacre of Hindu worshippers in Gujarat.

“Vajpayee keeps repeating that we will not tolerate what’s happening, but he does nothing. We will quit the government rather than sit and watch our country being insulted,” Thackeray was quoted by Star News as warning in Mumbai.

A nationwide closure on Thursday ordered by rightwing Hindu groups was actively supported by Thackeray’s group who blocked train services and enforced a holiday in schools and offices. The bandh was also reported to be successful in Gujarat.

In Srinagar, India’s junior home minister I.D. Swami said war was an option that New Delhi did not rule out to deal with Pakistan.

“We have stated it earlier also to the world community and we still maintain that all options for us were still open,” Swami told reporters. “We are not entirely dependent on the international coalition. We are capable of solving our problems ourselves.”

Asked whether war was a possibility, Swami said: “When I say all options are open don’t you think that this is an option too”.

Swami’s remarks found echo elsewhere. Vajpayee himself complained in New Delhi that the US pressure on Pakistan to abandon support to terrorism does not appear to be working, as he asserted that India would have to fight the menace on its own.

“Militants will not succeed in their designs. India is vigilant and in a position to meet the challenges,” Vajpayee was quoted as telling reporters at a public function.

“We have been using diplomatic channels to end the menace and we still have faith that the international coalition will rise to the occasion and make this world a place for civilised people,” Swami said during a daylong tour of Kashmir to study the polls held here on Tuesday.

Linking the temple attack in Gujarat to the frustration of militants after what he said was a successful completion of the two of the four phases of elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Swami said: “I will term it as the frustration and disappointment of militant organizations in the state following successful completion of polls.”

The All Parties Hurriyat Conference has already flayed the Gujarat massacre but described the linking of the outrage with Kashmir’s controversial polls as preposterous.

The National Executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party, meanwhile, held an emergency meeting in New Delhi to review the situation arising out of the attack on the Swaminarayan temple.

The meeting, presided over by Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, was attended by Vajpayee.

A BJP spokesman accused Congress President Sonia Gandhi and leaders of Left and other opposition parties of giving encouragement to terrorists by their selective condemnation of violence. Leaders of the party demanded that the government exercise the option of a limited strike across the LOC, “to destroy the terrorist camps existing there,” several reports said.

“The kind of speeches Sonia Gandhi, leaders of the Samajwadi Party and the Left parties made during Gujarat violence gave a fillip to the designs of the terrorists and resulted in the attack on the Akshardham Temple,” alleged BJP Parliamentary Party spokesperson Vijay Kumar Malhotra.