New Delhi, March 30: The terror attack on the police training centre near Lahore has only hardened New Delhi’s conviction that Pakistan’s fragile condition is increasing India’s vulnerability as it heads to an election and that there can be little sense in opening a dialogue with Islamabad.

Foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee, home minister P. Chidambaram and foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon sympathised with Pakistan for the lives lost but they drew a line between the terrorism in India and the terrorism in Pakistan.

Our terrorism, such as Mumbai’s 26/11, they suggested, originated in Pakistan. And “their” terrorism was not only home-grown but boomeranging because their state used it as an instrument of policy.

“Our position will not change with the weather,” Menon said, asked if the successive militant attacks in Pakistan were making it difficult for India to convince the world that Islamabad was the sponsor of global terrorism.

“It is a considered position.... In the case of Mumbai, the source is known to be from Pakistani soil. We don’t know (the source of) the Lahore attack. Therefore, it will be wrong to draw a parallel,” he said.

Chidambaram echoed Menon: “There can be no parallel. The only commonality is that they are terror attacks.”

India is also continuously re-assessing its threat perception. The army and intelligence agencies have noted that last week, a gang of militants breached the Line of Control and in the firefights that ensued in Kupwara, more than 25 were killed after a lull of nearly six months.

“Definitely, any kind of instability in the region... impinges on our security concerns... because we are neighbours and it is a cause for concern,” said army vice-chief Lieutenant General Noble Thamburaj. “India is ready for any spillover. We are watching the Pakistan situation carefully.”

Menon said dialogue with Pakistan, suspended since the Mumbai terror strike, could not resume immediately despite suggestions from the US.

“I am not setting down concrete markers,” said Menon, asked if there was a timeframe to start a dialogue. “We want to see credible action against the perpetrators.”