Two bags (one in picture above) containing RDX, reportedly planted during the Mumbai attack, were found at Victoria Terminus on Wednesday, a week after the terror strike, when Mumbaikars were taking out rallies and mourning the victims. Picture on below shows Mumbaikars jostling with one another to post messages on a signboard at the Gateway of India. Each bag was packed with 4kg of RDX and timer devices. (PTI pictures)

New Delhi, Dec. 3: The US today blew a hole in Pakistan’s defence in the Mumbai attacks, drawing a distinction between “stateless” and “the confines of the state” for the first time and seeking “direct and tough action” by Islamabad.

Scrambling to defuse spiralling bilateral tension that could harm America’s war on terror on the Afghanistan border, visiting US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice cautioned India to ensure its response does not provoke unintended consequences.

The advice came on a day the Indian government reviewed the “preparedness against any possible terror threats from air”.

“The fact is sometimes non-state actors operate from the confines of the state. There has to be direct and tough action (by Islamabad),” Rice told a joint media conference with foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee in Delhi this evening.

Her remarks came in response to a question on Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s comments that the Mumbai attacks were executed by “stateless actors”.

“Non-state actors are still a matter of your (Pakistan) responsibility that somehow relates to your territory,” Rice said in blunt comments aimed at pacifying the Indian government that is grappling with widespread public anger.

America has never made such an unequivocal distinction earlier, which effectively strips Pakistan of one of its oft-repeated excuses that the government should not be held responsible for possible actions by rogue elements.

“Pakistan has to act transparently, fully and urgently…. Pakistan has a special responsibility to do so,” said Rice who may visit Pakistan tomorrow.

If Rice did not pull punches on Pakistan, neither did she on India. “Any response needs to be judged by its effectiveness in prevention and also by not creating other unintended consequences or difficulties,” she said, fielding a question on whether the US would support India if forces are sent across the border to dismantle terror structures.

Minutes earlier, foreign minister Mukherjee had said: “The Government of India is determined to act decisively to protect Indian territorial integrity and the right of our citizens to a peaceful life with all the means at our disposal.”

Condoleezza Rice

Indian officials said America was no longer viewing such dire statements — seen by some as rhetoric meant for domestic consumption — as empty threats, especially after Zardari rejected a request to hand over 20 fugitives.

In her comments earlier in the day, Rice had stuck to the known American position by offering sympathy and little else in specifics. Indian officials refused to speculate what prompted her to make the tough statement at the media conference, following which she met the Prime Minister.

In public, Mukherjee did not make any commitment, confining himself to saying Delhi would act on the basis of Pakistan’s formal response.

But he iterated forcefully that those behind the attacks came from Pakistan and were controlled from there. Although Mukherjee said the assessment was “widely shared by the international community”, Rice stressed on the need to “get to the bottom” of the case. She did, however, describe the attacks as the “kind of terror al Qaida participates in”.