NEW DELHI, Dec 15: A spiralling verbal duel between India and Pakistan, triggered by a terrorist attack on New Delhi’s Parliament House on Thursday, could derail an important summit of regional countries in Kathmandu of which both are members, diplomats and officials said on Saturday.

Leaders of the seven-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) are due to meet from Jan 4 for three days in the Nepali capital, but diplomats said a fresh crescendo of words between the Saarc’s two largest neighbours could force a fresh postponement of the meeting.

“We are prepared for both the options,” an Indian official involved with the preparation of the summit in Kathmandu told Dawn . “If the need arises we may be forced to sort out our problems with Pakistan first. We can’t have much to talk at this stage of mistrust.”

Indian news reports said Delhi had “moved from accusing Pakistan’s homegrown terrorists for Thursday’s attack on Parliament to showing Islamabad a gloved fist”. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee declared at Kolkata that India’s “limits” of tolerance had been reached. Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha went a step further saying “all options were open” when asked about the possibility of a retaliatory war against Pakistan.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan said in a programme on BBC that although he could not discuss the next step that India would take in a public discussion, “Yet I can say what we have said in our cabinet meeting. We will liquidate terrorists whereever they are.”

In the programme, India’s supercop K.P.S. Gill, however, cautioned against a growing demand within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to do everything possible, even if it means going on a hot pursuit across the border, to punish the wider network of the suspects in Thursday’s attack. Five militants were killed and seven Indians including five security personnel with the audacious attack.

Sinha, addressing a meeting in Chennai, said the government was “keeping all its options open” when asked whether a war with Pakistan was possible after the attack on Parliament. Asked whether the country’s economy could withstand the stress of a war, Sinha said: “We have a strong and resilient economy, which can take anything.”

Sinha said the country could face a war, without any cess being imposed. “Even during the Kargil conflict, people predicted some new taxes. I did not levy any,” he said. “The mood of the country is the same as was in the United States after the Sept 11 attacks,” he added.

In Kolkata, Vajpayee warned Pakistan, saying the country had reached the “limits” of tolerance. In an obvious reference to Pakistan, the Prime Minister said Indian troops could have crossed the border during the Kargil conflict, but “we exercised restraint and only snatched back our land.”

“We have exercised much restraint in the past and now our tolerance has reached its limits. We will face terrorism with all our might,” Vajpayee said during a visit there.

“We are being advised again to show restraint, but we tell our advisers to convey to our neighbour that there is a limit to our tolerance,” the Prime Minister said. Ridiculing Pakistani propaganda that India itself had engineered the attack on Parliament, Vajpayee said, “We have found out who was behind it.” Recounting the Dec 13 attack, he said the plot was basically to eliminate the entire leadership of the country. “I shiver to think what would have happened had even a single terrorist managed to enter the Central Hall of Parliament.”

On resuming talks with Pakistan, Vajpayee said he went to Lahore to seek friendship, but Pakistan had resorted to treachery. “We got Kargil in return,” he said.