``Pakistan has violated the Shimla agreement for the past ten years in its sponsorship of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir,'' the officials said. ``What we're witnessing is a new chapter. We had hoped that Pakistan would stop being a habitual offender, but they are thinking up of new ways of transgressing the limit,'' they added.

By emphasising that the Shimla pact continued to be the cornerstone of all bilateral dialogue, the officials indicated that the Lahore declaration was all but dead. ``This armed intrusion must end. This action will go on as long as it takes and will be concluded successfully. Our resolve is absolute, complete and firm,'' the officials added.

They also said that a letter had today been sent to thePakistan authorities, asking them to return the pilot of the downed aircraft, Fl Lt Nachiketa, forthwith, and that he be treated with the courtesy demanded by international conventions during the length of his stay in Pakistan.

Even as foreign governments continue to be supportive of India's stand so far, decrying the shooting down of the IAF aircraft as well as the Pakistani-sponsored infiltration into Indian territory, the foreign office here continued its exhaustive exercise of briefing diplomats about the situation.

Ambassadors from Germany (current head of the European Union), Austria (past head) and Finland (next head) were called in by the foreign secretary on Friday. Diplomats from the SAARC countries, some of whom have been spoken to, will also be exhaustively briefed from Saturday.

Western diplomatic sources reiterated that their ``genuine understanding'' of India's position could be based on the fact that New Delhi, despite its severe objections to the NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia,never issued any demarches to the NATO countries. ``It would not now be appropriate for us to do the reverse,'' the western sources said.

The ministry officials, however, would not respond to Defence minister George Fernandes' statement absolving Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the ISI intelligence service of any hand in LoC crisis.

There are two schools of thought in the ministry over Fernandes' statement : some say that New Delhi is attempting to set the cat among the pigeons by openly remarking on the ``divide'' within the Pakistani establishment, while others feel it is ``sheer naivete'' on India's part to believe that one hand on Islamabad doesn't know what the other is doing.