Speaking to members of the public at his residence, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said he had told UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that any special envoy sent to ease bilateral tensions should be sent to Islamabad.

``Annan rang me up last night to convey his proposal to send a special envoy to India and Pakistan to sort out the matter between the two countries but I firmly told him that if at all an envoy has to be sent, he should go to Pakistan and not India,'' Vajpayee said.

The killing of Sq Ldr Ajay Ahuja, who landed in Pakistani territory, was another stormy issue. The post-mortem report on Ahuja's body revealed that he had been shot twice, through the head and the chest area. The report shows two bullet entry and exit points,one from the right ear and across the face exiting near the left ear, and the other in the right chest area. A compound fracture has also shown up in the left knee, which he presumably suffered when he landed after ejecting from his aircraft.

Following this, Pakistan Deputy High Commissioner Akbar Zeb was summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs and told of India's condemnation of the action. India, he was told, ``strongly condemns this act of cowardice and savagery and expects that those who are guilty of shooting Ahuja in cold blood will be prosecuted by the government of Pakistan for the murder and punished.''

Pakistan denied India's charge, calling it a `move to cover up its brutalities and mislead public opinion'. A spokesman for the ISI said ``any prisoner of war, specially a pilot, is an important asset...And no man in his senses could think of killing him".

Officials here summarily rejected any suggestion of suicide, saying, ``The most compelling evidence is the post-mortem report. A personwouldn't normally shoot himself twice, once in the head and once in the heart.''

According to Air Vice-Marshal S K Malik, the Additional Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Ahuja's unnatural death can only be described as ``cold-blooded murder and an act of cowardice. We condemn this action. His colleagues are determined to continue with the air strikes in order to avenge his death.''

Meanwhile, the Ministry of External Affairs is believed to be recommending a tough line on the proposed visit of Pakistani foreign minister Sartaj Aziz to India, even as the government still seems to be debating the final pros and cons of the issue.

Highly placed sources in the Ministry, said, ``The rationale for it (Aziz's visit) does not exist. The cause must be addressed first.''

The sources, pointing to Vajpayee's speech today, said New Delhi was prepared to talk to Islamabad but it could not be done in the absence of an understanding on both sides about who was responsible for the situation in first place.

Officialsources said any proposed visit by Aziz ``must also take into account the fact that there is an armed intrusion and must be reversed.''

Vajpayee told the gathering this afternoon, that ``it is Pakistan which has attacked us and violated our territory to capture our land,'' adding that the armed forces would continue their operations till their mission was successful. ``We cannot tolerate their presence on our territory,'' he added.

The international community also seems to be keeping close tabs on the Kargil crisis, with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and British Foreign Minister Robin Cook calling External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh over the last couple of days.

Official sources said that Singh told his counterparts that what had happened in Kargil ``was an armed intrusion, that there was no alternative but to evict the intruders and we're tackling the situation.''

The sources also said the international community recognised that the Indian action was ``on our side of the Line ofControl'' and that even as the air strikes continued, India ``would adhere to the LoC.''

The ministry has, in fact, been conducting a massive briefing exercise with all foreign missions here, complete with charts and maps to explain the situation on the ground. Tomorrow, Foreign Secretary K. Raghunath will brief the heads of the Asean countries as well as the Gulf representatives.

Diplomats here have often asked, perhaps with the example of Kosovo in mind, why India needed to go in for air strikes.

``But once the geography of the place is explained to them, there is not only general understanding about India's action but also about the genesis of the problem,'' the sources said.

Meanwhile, the United States today backed India's military action against infiltrators saying the intruders who have seized Indian territory along the line of control (LoC) would have to go.

``Clearly, the Indians are not going to cede this territory. They (infiltrators) have to depart, and they will depart, eithervoluntarily or because the Indians take them out,'' The New York Times quoted US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Karl Inderfurth as saying.

The paper said Inderfurth would not comment on a query regarding Pakistan's backing for the intruders but expressed the hope that the two sides would work towards defusing the escalating tension in Kargil.

``There is always the possibility of events spinning out of control,'' Inderfurth said.

``Clearly, the ingredients are there for miscalculation. Our hope is that both sides will take steps to move this in a peaceful direction.''