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India can't retreat in war against terror: Farooq

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah on Thursday night said India stands for peace with its neighbours, including Pakistan, but it cannot retreat from its chosen path against terror.

"India wants peace and not war as it has never been an aggressor in the past wars with Pakistan," Abdullah said at a seminar on role of Jammu and Kashmir Bank in improving state's economy.

Referring to the arms build up on the border as the highest ever alertness of the armed forces in the past five decades, he said India can't retreat from its chosen path against terror.

He also said that India would never fire the first shot of war.

Following the terror attacks on Srinagar legislature complex and Parliament, India has decided to wage a decisive battle against terrorism, Abdullah said, adding the world has woken up to the challenges posed by terrorism and no country can afford to side with a nation aiding and abetting terrorism.

Emphasising on India's peace initiatives taken from time to time, he said that during the Kargil incursion it did not cross over to Pakistan occupied Kashmir, though intruders were fighting against the country's valiant forces on this side.

"We could have pierced through the line but India gave heed to international sentiments favouring peace," he said.

Cautioning people against Pakistan's plans, Abdullah said nobody in India is swayed by President Pervez Musharraf's recent televised speech, which was just for his domestic constituency aimed at ridding Pakistani society from ills of intolerance and religious extremism.

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