India's deputy home minister Wednesday said cross-border strikes on Muslim militant camps in Pakistan were one of the military options in New Delhi's arsenal to combat insurgency in troubled Kashmir.
"Striking terrorist camps in PoK [Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir] has always been a possibility. This has been one of the options," I.D. Swami told the private SAB TV network.
His comments came two days after a devastating suicide bomb attack by suspected Islamic militants at the state legislature in Kashmir which left 38 people dead.
Swami, however, said any cross-border action ordered by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee would only come after consultations with national political parties.
India accuses Pakistan of arming and training Islamic insurgents, but Islamabad denies the charge, though it extends moral and diplomatic backing to what it argues is the Kashmiris' legitimate struggle for self-determination.
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and has been the object of two wars between them.
Meanwhile Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani Wednesday held a series of high-level meetings in Kashmir aimed at revamping security following the attack, which also left 60 people injured.
Advani visited the partially-destroyed assembly complex in Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, and talked to police and paramilitary officers who had rescued people from inside the building after Monday's attack.
Officials in New Delhi said Advani, in charge of India's internal security, was holding consultations with the authorities in the Indian-administered zone of Kashmir to upgrade security at government buildings and public places.
"A senior team of officials will also reach Kashmir to evolve a strategy on offensive security methods," a senior government source said in New Delhi.
Indian troops in Srinagar were put on maximum alert for Advani's visit.
Advani addressed Kashmiri lawmakers at a heavily-guarded hotel and chaired a meeting of police, army, paramilitary and civil administration officials, including Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and police chief Ashok Bhan.
Swami said Advani would conduct the security review with the United Command comprising the police, army, national commandos and other federal agencies deployed in Kashmir.
"He will discuss everything," Swami said.
Advani angered both Kashmir's state government and Islamic separatists in August when he said New Delhi was thinking about issuing an amnesty for Indian troops charged with human rights abuses in Kashmir.
At least 35,000 people have been killed since an insurgency broke out in India's only Muslim-majority state in 1989 -- SRINAGAR, India (AFP)
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