India will act decisively if attacked again: PC

“If we are able to establish with a reasonable degree of certainty that another attack on India emanated from Pakistani soil, we will respond swiftly and decisively,” the home minister said while addressing the India Today conclave titled “South Asia: Securing the Future”.

To a query that this also meant military action, he responded by saying, “It suffices to say our response will be swift and decisive.”

Pointing to Pakistan’s duplicity over Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafeez Saeed, Chidambaram said, “Investigations around the world are carried out in a certain way. If Pakistan does not know how to interrogate Saeed, then they should allow my agents to go in there and do the job. I am willing to get this done.”

“If Pakistan wants to bury its head ostrich-like, then what can we say. I’d like to believe that Pakistan has stepped back from sponsoring non-state actors, but there is no proof of that yet,” Chidambaram said.

Pakistan could make a start towards convincing India of its sincerity by providing voice samples of those suspected of guiding the 26/11 terrorists from Pakistan, said Chidambaram.

But in the same breath he indicated that Pakistan had simply refused to act even though India had sent in a list of suspects. “The voice samples can be tested in India or in a neutral country – maybe in Quantico, USA – and that would go a certain distance in helping establish what we believe –– that state actors are indeed involved, but Pakistan refuses to provide us with these samples,” he said.