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The Ministry of Home Affairs has convened a meeting on Thursday to decide on India's response to the terrorist attack in Jammu, which claimed 33 lives on Tuesday.
Defence Minister George Fernandes, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and officials of the armed forces would be among the participants in the meeting.
At a press conference in Goa, where he had come to kick-off the election campaign, Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani said India should fight its own battles.
According to Advani, the attack -- which coincided with US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina Rocca's visit to New Delhi -- had thrown up a challenge to India and the international coalition against terrorism.
Recalling his visit to Washington where the US had offered to help defeat terrorism wherever it was, Advani said: "Let us view their promises and commitments in an appropriate perspective."
The home minister declined to disclose the kind of response that India was planning at Thursday's meeting. "I cannot anticipate but this is definitely a serious situation."
Advani also refused to say if India would plan any "retaliation" rather than simply "countering" cross-border terrorism.
He reiterated that talks would not be renewed till Islamabad wound up terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, stopped pushing in terrorists into Indian territory and handed over the 20 terrorists wanted by New Delhi.
The Attack in Jammu: The Complete Coverage
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