Defence Minister A K Antony will not apologise, says government

New Delhi: Parliament was paralysed today as Opposition members angrily demanded an apology from Defence Minister AK Antony for letting Pakistan off the hook through his statement on the killing of five Indian soldiers in Kashmir.

Amid the swirling controversy he has encoded, Mr Antony met the Prime Minister today. He later told Parliament that his statement on Wednesday was based on "whatever information" he had at the time, and promised to update Parliament after Army Chief General Bikram Singh's Kashmir visit today.

Yesterday, Mr Antony said that 20 heavily armed militants accompanied by "persons dressed in Pakistan Army uniforms" had ambushed an Army patrol on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch, 200 km south of Srinagar. (In pics: India pays tributes to five martyrs)

The Opposition is stressing that the minister's detailing of the deadly ambush differed from the assessment of the Indian Army, which initially blamed the Pakistani army for the killings.

The government today defended Mr Antony, and said that the Defence Ministry's statement which was later withdrawn was inaccurate. Sources, however, said that the government is likely to issue a clarification on Mr Antony's statement in Parliament tomorrow.

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told NDTV, "Pakistan is exploiting the divide inside our Parliament... whether they (attackers) were the Pakistan Army or terrorists in uniform, the responsibility for the attack is Pakistan's." (Track live updates)

In the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition, said, "Our Defence Minister has given a clean chit to Pakistan... he must apologise to the nation."

The uproar that followed forced repeated adjournments in Parliament.

Senior BJP leaders, including party chief Rajnath Singh, LK Advani and Sushma Swaraj met the Prime Minister at his residence where they lodged a strong protest on the government response on the killing of these soldiers. Sources said the BJP leaders conveyed deep sense of anguish over what they called Defence Minister AK Antony's "blunder".

Sources also said that the BJP leaders told the Prime Minister to rectify the government stand over the killing of Indian soldiers.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and newly-elected Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharuf are likely to hold separate talks at the UN General Assembly session in New York next month.