New Delhi, Sept. 19: The senior political and military leaderships today decided to "reserve the right to respond to any act of the adversary at a time and place of own choosing" but pressure was building on the Narendra Modi administration to take demonstrative action for the killing of soldiers in Uri.

The military options the army is understood to have given to the government are conditioned on the Centre's belief on how it may manage the "escalation dynamics", meaning whether violence could spiral out of control or not.

Technically, a ceasefire is still holding on the Line of Control for nearly 13 years. A return to pre-2003 times when shelling across the LoC was almost a daily affair would put civilians in the line of fire. In the 13 years of relative peace, the population has increased near the LoC.

A series of meetings were held through the day with Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairing one in 7 Race Course Road that had the ministers for defence, home and finance in attendance as well as the army chief, the defence secretary and heads of intelligence agencies.

Before that Parrikar was briefed by the army chief, Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag, and the director-general of military operations (DGMO), Lt Gen. Ranbir Singh, on how the militants carried out the attack and what accounted for the high death toll - the toll rose to 18 this afternoon.

Among the dead are two soldiers from Bengal - Sepoy Biswajit Ghorai from South 24-Parganas and Sepoy Gangadhar Dalui from Howrah. (See Page 4)

In the statement read out by the DGMO Lt Gen. Ranbir Singh, the last sentence was nearly a word-for-word repeat from Gen. Bikram Singh (now retired) when he was army chief in 2013.

In August that year, a Pakistan Army Border Action Team was said to have killed five Indian soldiers (two of whom were beheaded). The Opposition BJP then had cried for revenge. The UPA government responded through Gen. Bikram Singh who had said: "These are tactical-level operations; we will respond at a place and time of our own choosing."

Today, Lt Gen. Ranbir Singh said in his statement: "The Indian Army has displayed considerable restraint while handing the terrorist situation both along the Line of Control and in the hinterland. However, we have the desired capability to respond to such blatant acts of aggression and violence as deemed appropriate by us. We reserve the right to respond to any act of the adversary at a time and place of our own choosing."

He did not take any questions.

The defence minister was told of where the army thought the militants had breached the Line of Control. Uri is a "bowl" that is surrounded by the LoC on three sides, the Jhelum flows through it to PoK and the road that runs from Srinagar to Muzaffarabad also passes through its Kaman Post on the LoC.

Despite the heightened tension, the "peace bus" that runs for Kashmiris on both sides passed Uri this morning. There was an acknowledgement that perimeter security was breached by the attackers, four of whom were killed. They are suspected to have had some kind of local help but the DGMO said their weapons and rations had Pakistani markings.

There was also the understanding that the high toll of the Indian Army was because of the early morning attack on the cookhouse, two tents that caught fire and burnt the soldiers sleeping inside.

Lt Gen. Ranbir Singh, the DGMO, said in his statement "the infiltration attempts by terrorists have shown a marked increase (this year) in comparison to the past 3-4 years". There were 17 infiltration attempts that the army in

tercepted along the LoC. Of a total 110 terrorists eliminated in J&K, 31 have been killed while they were attempting to cross the LoC, said Singh.

"It actually indicates a desperate attempt from across the Line of Control to infiltrate more terrorists into Kashmir with a view to create disturbance and foment unrest in our area," he said. The last two infiltration attempts - on September 11 and on Sept 18 (Sunday) ended with attacks on army and fixed positions. Four militants were killed in each of these two attacks.

Tonight, militants attacked a police outpost in Handwara in Kashmir. No casualties had been reported till late in the night.