India vows to fight terror 'with courage'

NEW DELHI, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- India's external affairs minister says terrorism in his country will be "confronted, and confronted with courage."

Speaking at a Congress Party meeting in New Delhi Sunday, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said India had no sympathy for Sri Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which he described as a terrorist group, nor for terrorists in neighboring Pakistan, the Indo Asian news service reported.

Without referring to Islamabad by name, Mukherjee asked "our neighboring country" to ensure that its territory is not used for terrorist activities and vowed terrorism "would be confronted, and confronted with courage."

Mukherjee said "all options are open" in the fight against terrorism and promised the "perpetrators of terrorist activities would be brought to justice," IANS reported.

Mukherjee also appealed for help for the Tamil civilian victims of fighting in Sri Lanka between government troops and the LTTE, the news agency said.

"Almost 200,000 civilian Tamil population is caught up in the crossfire between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan troops," Mukherjee told thousands of Congress Party activists in New Delhi. "I appeal to the Sri Lankan government to provide them shelter, food and security."