'Snap all diplomatic ties with Pakistan'

NEW DELHI: As Pakistan rejected demands for preventing terrorists from using its soil, a leading defence expert has asked India to snap all diplomatic ties with it and move two army divisions to Afghanistan to pressurise Islamabad.

"Take this war to the enemy" was the call given by Bharat Verma, Editor of Indian Defence Review, who also strongly recommended other measures like regulating river water supply and cancellation of overflights to pressure Pakistan into taking concrete steps against terror.

Observing that India had made substantial investments in Afghanistan's reconstruction programme, he said "move two integrated divisions with substantial air element in the area, in consultation with Kabul.

"Let Indian pressures build up from the east and west on Pakistan so that our embassy and other establishments (in Afghanistan) are not targeted in the future," Verma said in his latest book 'Fault Line'.

He also described the US Administration's strategy in Afghanistan as "flawed, misguided and counter-productive", saying "they (Western forces) cannot win without New Delhi's direct involvement."

Verma asked New Delhi to "learn to fight its own war instead of expecting others do its dirty work. ...Limited war is a misnomer. Hone the military machine for an all out war, if and when necessary."