In an oblique reference to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Friday night said governments should be held wholly accountable for terrorism that originates from their countries and indicated the response to Tuesday`s attacks in the US could take place in India`s vicinity. In his ten-minute address, Vajpayee said for years in India, we have been alerting others to the fact that terrorism is a scourge for all of humanity, that what happens in Mumbai one day is bound to happen elsewhere tomorrow, that the poison that propels mercenaries and terrorists to kill and maim in Jammu and Kashmir will impel the same sort to blow up people elsewhere.
Going public for the first time since the strikes, Vajpayee asserted the world must join hands to overwhelm terrorists militarily and asked the people to brace themselves up for harsh measures In the coming months owing to heightened costs on account of response to terrorists.

Declaring that the world must strike at the roots of the system that breeds terrorism, he said that we must stamp out the infrastructure that imparts the perverse ideological poison by which the terrorist is fired up. We must hold governments accountable for the terrorism that originates from their countries.
Giving an indication of possible counter-terrorism measures in the region, Vajpayee said, “As this region has become the hub of terrorism, much of the response to the destruction that the terrorists caused on September 11 (in the US), could take place in our vicinity.”
Vajpayee said, ‘in other words, to get at the terrorists, the world community must get at their organisations and at those who condition, finance, train, equip and protect them.”
Cautioning people to prepare for harsh measures in wake of the current uncertainty, Vajpayee said, “This turn has come at a time when the world economy is already on the edge of a substantial slow down.”
Referring to President K R Narayanan`s assurance to US President George Bush that India stood with the American people in this hour of grief, he said he had reiterated to Bush that what the terrorists had done sends a strong message to democracies that we redouble our efforts to defeat this grave threat to our people, our values and our way of life. “I have assured him (Bush) that we stand ready to cooperate with you in the investigations into this crime and to strengthen our partnership in leading international efforts to ensure that terrorism never succeeds again,” The Prime Minister said.
Bureau Report