Some analysts, including former Indian envoy to Islamabad G. Parthasarthy said India could ask Mr Blair for a role in humanitarian assistance in a post-Taliban Afghanistan, but there was no official confirmation if this had been discussed at the three-hour meeting at Mr Vajpayee’s official residence.
Mr Blair who arrived Friday night from Islamabad later left for London.
Diplomatic sources said Mr Blair used his close ties with Mr Vajpayee to highlight the importance of the war against Osama bin Laden’s network as the first step to tackle terrorism around the world, including in India. He specially singled out last week’s suicide attack on the state parliament in Srinagar in which 29 people were killed. Gen Musharraf has condemned the attack.
There were fears in India of more such attacks.
Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh said on Friday the government expected to be targeted by terrorists following the attacks in the United States last month.
Mr Singh said India was not convinced that Islamabad had stopped supporting militant groups which it says are fuelling the insurgency in Kashmir. “We know that India will be targeted. There is no doubt about it,” he said in an interview with the BBC. “And it is the duty of my government and the duty of the citizens too to be prepared and be ready to face any such further assault by terrorists against India, which we know will take place.”
Although the Sept 11 attacks in New York and Washington were sourced elsewhere, terrorist warnings in India, particularly of the kind that Mr Singh alluded to, are usually seen, rightly or wrongly, in the context of poor relations with Pakistan.
Vajpayee did not hide his concern on the issue. In a not-so-veiled swipe at Britain’s new proximity with Pakistan, he said: “Even while extending our wholehearted support to the pursuit of the guilty terrorists of Sept 11, we should not let countries pursue their own terrorist agenda under cover of this action (fight against terrorism).”
Blair said the international community had waged a war against terrorism, “which we will continue until we are successful.”
He assured India of his country’s support in New Delhi’s fight against terrorism. He condemned the Oct 1 suicide attack in Srinagar but kept silent on whether the international coalition against terrorism would help India deal with its problems in Kashmir.
Mr Blair told Mr Vajpayee that “such outrages have no place in any civilised society and those that perpetrate them should be brought to justice.”
One analyst saw in Mr Blair’s remarks a lack of commitment to help India in Kashmir.
“The message was clear,” commented an online Indian newspaper. “If it is an attack on the US and its allies, all countries should come forward and eliminate the source of that attack. The attacks in Srinagar or Kashmir are India’s war, which it has to fight on its own. Britain would condemn it but won’t think twice in embracing the source of terrorism.”
Mr Vajpayee said India had waged a virtually lone struggle against terrorism and recalled the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar. “We believe that in this globalised world, distance and time do not provide insulation from the reach of terrorism,” he told Mr Blair.
“The hijack of an aircraft from Kathmandu to Kandahar may have linkage with four other aircraft wreaking havoc in the US nearly two years later. This is precisely why terrorism has to be dealt with globally,” he said.
“Condoning a terrorist in one place may lay the foundation for a far more virulent act elsewhere,” Mr Vajpayee said.