Tokyo: Asserting that terrorism emanating from Pakistan continues in Jammu and Kashmir, Defence Minister George Fernandes on July 8 said India is still sticking to its proposal for joint patrolling with Pakistan of the line of control to stop infiltration.

"We are still ready for joint surveillance of the LoC", Fernandes, who is on a three- day visit to Japan, told reporters.

However, to realise it, Fernandes said there would first have to be "a certain level of understanding" between the two sides as well as "confidence with each other on the borders".

"It will take some time before confidence-building measures can be brought into action...because we have our troops on our side, they have their troops on the other side. They are looking at each other not as friends, not as people having trust in each other," he said, according to Kyodo.

Pakistan has dismissed the suggestion as "unworkable".

Cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, Fernandes said continued despite Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's "solemn promise" conveyed to US President George Bush in early June that he would put a "permanent" stop to infiltration and close down militant training camps.

After that promise, India had initially acknowledged a decrease in the infiltration of militants across the LoC.

"But we discovered that in mid-June once again terrorism got on the upswing, and what we now have are ups and downs, there isn't any complete end to terrorism and one never knows when it crops up again,'' Fernandes said.

Fernandes said that just ahead of his departure for Japan there were "a couple of incidents'' in which alleged terrorists tried to sneak into Indian territory from Pakistan, but they were "shot down on the borders''.

"So we still have this kind of situation insofar as terrorist activity launched from Pakistani soil or by those who have already been pushed into our territory goes," he said.

He, however, asserted that there was little risk of a nuclear war breaking out.

India is "very clear" in its nuclear doctrine, he said recalling New Delhi's pledge never to be the first to use nuclear weapons.

Fernandes declared that ''free and fair'' Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir would be held on schedule in October "despite whatever threats may come from terrorist outfits".

He noted that on July 6 a "terrorist outfit headquartered in Pakistan" claimed responsibility for having gunned down the leader of a political party in the state and threatened to extend the same treatment to anyone else who contests the election.

Fernandes said a recent survey by Britain-based polling firm Mori showed a majority of people in the state "are telling Pakistan to get off our backs and are for elections and have declared their intention of fighting against terrorism in every possible way".

The Defence Minister is in Tokyo at the invitation of his Japanese counterpart Gen Nakatani.

PTI