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Musharraf has not understood the
seriousness of the situation: Jaswant

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The Cabinet Committee on Security on Sunday underscored that India's defence preparedness to face any external challenge is complete.

Briefing reporters after a CCS meeting at the prime minister's residence, Minister of External Affairs Jaswant Singh said Pakistan is amassing troops along the International Border and the Line of Control, "but we are ready to meet any challenge."

He said the CCS discussed the situation in the wake of the December 13 attack on Parliament.

Singh was critical of Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf's description of India's decision to recall its high commissioner in Islamabad as "arrogant." He said it indicated "the general's tendency to engage in military malapropism."

The minister said he was disinclined to enter into a verbal exchange with the Pakistan president.

"It is for him to deal with the Alice in Wonderland kind of situation he finds himself in. I don't want to reply him in the barrack-room language he uses," Singh asserted.

Singh pointed out that the CCS wanted Pakistan to act on India's demarche seeking a ban on Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed -- the two terrorist outfits which participated in the attack on Indian Parliament.

Meanwhile, echoing Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's assertion in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday, a senior official of the prime minister's office told rediff.com that the " situation is tense but under control."

Complete Coverage: The Attack on Parliament

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