Govt denies being soft on terror, will deal with attacks firmly

New Delhi, July 12 (UNI) Denying that the UPA government is soft on terrorism, Home Minister Shivraj Patil today said the Centre would take all possible measures to curb terror attacks and strengthen security in the country.

''We will deal with this (terror attacks),'' Mr Patil, who visited Mumbai last night to make an on-the-spot assessment of the situation, told mediapersons here.

''Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Home Ministry has already said this clearly and I have also discussed the issue with Chief Ministers of Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Karnataka and other states and we all are confident about dealing with the situation.'' Mr Patil congratulated the people of Jammu and Kashmir and Mumbai for putting up a united face against the terror attacks yesterday which claimed eight lives in Jammu and Kashmir and 183 lives in Mumbai.

He said the opposition parties, who were criticising the government for being soft on terror, had also faced similar situations like the attack on Parliament and should realise that there was a manner to tackle such incidents.

Declining to divulge whether the LeT or SIMI were behind these terror attacks, the Home Minister said though the government was in possession of information about the blasts, he would not take the name of any organisation as it would deflect the attention of the investigating agencies.

He also denied the possibility of the terror attacks affecting the Confidence Building Measures with Pakistan. He said the objective of those behind the attacks was to disturb peace and destabilise the country but ''we will not allow them to achieve these objectives''.

However, asked whether the government was giving a clean chit to Pakistan as far as the terror attacks were concerned, Mr Patil shot back, ''Who said so.'' The Home Minister, who along with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, visited the injured in various hospitals of Mumbai, expressed satisfaction that the people of the commercial capital were using local trains and going to offices this morning.

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