Was India set for surgical air strikes in Pak?

NEW DELHI: Was India very close to carrying out ���surgical air strikes��� against the terror camps in Pakistan and targets across the border immediately after the terror assault in Mumbai?

While defence ministry officials refused ���to react to speculative reports������ , sources said ���some steps were indeed taken��� ��� to ���prime��� ��� IAF fighter jets for ���offensive action��� ��� within a day or two of 26/11, but the final government go-ahead did not come.

���The moment passed and then the US jumped in with assurances of making Pakistan deliver on Indian demands ,������ said a source. This ties in with a report by CNN which quotes unnamed Pentagon officials as saying that the IAF began ���preliminary preparations��� ��� for ���a possible attack��� ��� against Pakistan in the immediate aftermath of the Mumbai massacre.

The US promptly urged India to exercise restraint after ���concluding��� ��� that the ���preliminary preparations��� ��� would have placed it in a position to launch air strikes inside Pakistan.

Sources in the government also said there had been some thought of ���action��� ��� but after the first few days, the international attention on India and the pressure on Pakistan diluted the Indian intention.



Pak trying to cover up Kasab links?

Islamabad: Pakistani authorities and residents of Ajmal Amir Kasab���s village have apparently launched an effort to cover up their links with the terrorist arrested in Mumbai. Security and intelligence agencies have deployed a large number of personnel in plainclothes at Okara in the Faridkot district of Punjab from where Kasab hails. Footage of the intelligence operatives has been aired by Geo TV.

Journalists visiting the area are said to be facing angry protests. According to reports , they have been warned against interviewing anybody or filming the area. One person even tried to snatch the camera and wallet of a foreign journalist, while a TV channel team was assaulted by a gang which also took away the mobile phones and digital videotapes of its members besides trying to smash their cameras.

Asim Rana, who was in charge of the team, said the villagers could not have pulled out the tapes from the cameras ���with such expertise������ . ���It shows that people from the (security ) agencies are among the villagers and are running the show,������ he said.