Announcing this here on Thursday, Union Home Minister L K Advani said "during the last two months, our attention was focussed to vacate Pakistani aggression in Kargil. Similarly, in the coming months, our focussed objective will be to ensure that cross-border terrorism is defeated."

While the security forces, village defence committees (VDCs) and special police officers (SPOs) will continue to fight militants, "it will be our endeavour to make the international community realise that sanctity of Line of Control (LoC) also means that no country should encourage cross-border terrorism, he said. Besides, more Army battalions will be deployed for counter-insurgency operations in the State as soon as the situation eases along the borders, he added.

The Home Minister said he felt the need of providing better weapons to the VDC members, saying that some of the SPOs have already beengiven automatic weapons. There is also a need to provide communication equipment to the VDCs, Advani said. Quoting the State's Director General of Police Gurbachan Jagat, that 500 communication equipment have so far been provided to them, the Home Minister said that many more were still needed.

Referring to the apprehensions about Pakistani attempts to revive proxy war against India ever since its defeat in Kargil, Advani said that "series of incidents (massacres) only confirm our worst fears. As such, the Home Ministry has already alerted all the States against any Pakistani attempt to escalate ISI activities in view of its reverses in Kargil".

The Home Minister also accused Congress of making Kargil its election issue and also targetting Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. "Ordinarily, we will not like to make it a poll issue, but our principal adversary has choosen it without realising that it will boomerang on them," he added.

Kargil is a triumphing achievement and it has made Vajpayee a PrimeMinister without fear. While the battle was won by the jawans' valour, Pakistan was made to realise that Kargil was a misadventure, he added.

Advani said the Congress may try to ridicule the Lahore bus journey, but it convinced the world that India wanted peace with Pakistan. "In its absence, we would not have won world support," he added.

To a question about United Nations resolutions authorising one country to cross its boundary to check cross-border terrorism, Advani said, "We exercised restraint to dispel any doubt as to who had crossed the LoC." Besides, the one factor which also weighed was a general feeling that while India was a democracy with only one power centre in the elected Government, Pakistan was a rouge State with various autonomous centres of power, he added.

Referring to the recent massacre of 15 people near Thathri in Doda, the Home Minister appreciated the VDC members for putting up a strong defence against the heavily armed militants.

Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, who wasalso present on the occasion, hoped that more Central assistance will be coming to the State to fight militancy. He reiterated his Government's resolve to fight out militancy from the State.