India will feel pressured to retaliate if militants launched an attack similar to the Mumbai assaults that killed more than 160 people and fuelled anger across the country, a government minister said on Saturday. The Indian government's response was restrained despite the public calls to hit back over the November 2008 attacks blamed on Lashkar-e-Taiba group, but it would be difficult to withstand the pressure again, Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju told a security conference.
"If a provocation is to happen again, it would be hard to justify to our people self restraint, and I hope that it will not be repeated and that we will have a constructive dialogue with Pakistan in containing these terrorist elements which are causing strife not only in India but also within Pakistan," Raju said.
Pakistan has put seven people on trial, and says it needs more evidence from India to prosecute others including the founder of the LeT, Hafeez Mohammad Sayeed. Raju said revelations made by a Pakistani-American who has confessed to scouting targets for the Mumbai attacks in a trial in Chicago have made it harder to show restraint in future. "The international community is aware of the damning evidence that has come out from David Headley during his interrogation," Raju told the conference in Singapore.