New Delhi, Nov 23 (IANS) India’s approach towards Pakistan should have been more “pro-active and offensive” after the dastardly Mumbai terror attacks to prevent Islamabad from continuously using terror as tool of its foreign policy towards New Delhi, former army chief Gen V.P. Malik said Monday.
“There is no change in Pakistan’s policy against India. The Pakistan Army maintains its unholy alliance with terror groups through the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence),” Malik said at the launch here of “Confronting Terrorism”, a book published by Penguin Books India.

The book is a compilation of essays written by security, strategic and military experts on how to deal with terrorism. Maroof Raza, army officer-turned-journalist and a known security expert, has edited the book.

Malik referred to former Pakistani military dictator Pervez Musharraf’s recent CNN interview in which he had admitted that there was “an ingress of the (Pakistani spy agency) ISI in every terrorist group”.

Malik, who was the army chief during the 1999 Kargil war, said India’s approach towards Pakistan has been a “foreign policy failure”.

“We have not been pro-active and offensive. Use military action and send a message that enough is enough,” he said, adding that New Delhi was “hiding the truth when you say Pakistan is also a victim of terrorism the way India is”.

He said Pakistan “continues to use terror as an instrument of its foreign policy and the attacks like Mumbai were meant to weaken India”.

“They (Pakistan) think that if pressure is maintained against India (through terror attacks), it will strengthen their claim on Kashmir and India will be compelled to settle it.”

The former general said cross-border terrorism sponsored by Pakistan “can escalate into a full blown war between two countries”.