Nation should ready for strong, stringent action: Sibal

New Delhi, Nov 27 (UNI) Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Kapil Sibal today said the nation should be prepared for strong, stringent action by the government to combat the kind of unprecedented terrorism unleashed on Mumbai by attackers.

In an interview to a private channel, he said the time was ripe to set up a federal investigation agency to send signals to the terrorists that India would not take lying down similar kind of attacks in the future.

Agreeing that the country wanted a new approach to take on terrorist attacks, he said India wanted to give the message that it would no longer take lying down such attacks, he told the interviewer.

The standoff between the terrorists, who had attacked several points of the Western capital city, had left a bloody trail of death and destruction and was continuing for the second day today.

Admitting that the holed up terrorists were in possession of sophisticated weapons, the minister said the terror attack was a well thought-out one and not random as in the 1993 serial bombings.

For this, he underlined political parties needed to arrive at a consensus as the nation's security was at stake.

Mr Sibal requested all political parties to be part of this struggle, saying, "we believe the time was not to play politics but to confront this terror." About the possibility of a Pakistani hand in the entire episode, Mr Sibal demurred saying it was too early to comment.

"First, let the hostages out, let the investigative agency investigate," he said, adding that the challenge of terrorism affected a one billion population.

"With whatever evidence we have, we can take a stand," he said.

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