Islamabad - Nuclear-armed Pakistan edged to the brink of war
with India when its president received a threatening call from
someone posing as Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee during
last week's Mumbai attacks, a media report said Saturday.
The incident has raised questions in Pakistan of how the head of a
nuclear state could be fooled by an ill-wisher.
The caller, who was put through to President Asif Ali Zardari late
in the day on November 28 without verification of his claimed
identity, warned that India would take 'military action if Islamabad
failed to immediately act against the supposed perpetrators of the
Mumbai killings.'
According to The Dawn newspaper, as the phone call ended many in
the president's office were convinced that the 'Indians had started
beating the war drums.'
Panicked authorities put Pakistan Air Force on 'highest alert' and
jet fighters patrolled over and around the federal capital with live
ammunition for the next 24 hours, the newspaper reported, citing
several unnamed Pakistani political, diplomatic and security sources.
Alarming messages were sent to top officials in Washington,
including US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, as the country was
eyeing India for possible signs of military aggression.
'War may not have been imminent, but it was not possible to take
any chances,' one senior official told the newspaper.
But Mukherjee denied that he had made any phone call to Zardari as
Rice contacted him in the middle of the night on Friday, when the
Indian security forces were still battling the terrorists in Mumbai.
The situation was defused on the following day with hectic
international efforts.
An official in Pakistan's foreign ministry confirmed the report to
Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa but declined to give his name saying only
the president's office is authorized to speak on the issue.
Zardari's spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, said he was checking the
veracity of the news report.
The Mumbai slaughter that left more than 170 people dead and over
300 injured have raised tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad as
the Indian police claim the 10 attackers were linked with Pakistan-
based Islamic militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The same group which was also suspected to be involved in 2001
attack on the Indian parliament brought the two nuclear-armed South
Asian nations on the verge of a war.
A source in Indian High Commission in Islamabad told Press Trust
of India (PTI) news agency that a clear message was sent out to
Pakistani authorities that the call was fake and 'it should not
exacerbate tensions at a crucial time.'
With the situation still murky, Pakistan on November 29 threatened
to withdraw more than 100,000 troops fighting al-Qaeda and Taliban
along its western border if India started a military build-up on
eastern border, raising even further concerns in Washington.
Investigations are underway to establish the identity of the
caller. Pakistani authorities suspect the phone call came from a
number in New Delhi and might have been someone in India's foreign
ministry, a claim New Delhi rejected outright.
The Indian government did not have many details about the call
till Zardari himself mentioned the matter to a colleague in India,
PTI report said. This led to widespread cross-checking by India's
External Affairs Ministry and it was clearly established that no such
call had been made.
According to Dawn, the same mysterious caller also tried to speak
to Rice pretending to be the Indian external affairs minister, but
due to the specific checks laid down by the Americans, the call could
not get through.
Criticism has mounted on Zardar's offices of why the standard
procedures, including the verification of the caller and engagement
of the diplomatic missions, were by-passed when the fake caller was
connected to the president.
'That is an absolutely irresponsible attitude that could be very
dangerous when you are heading a nuclear state,' said Ahmed Raza
Kasuri, an ex-Pakistani minister and a close aide to former president
Pervez Musharraf.
'Someone has to be severely punished for the security laps even if
it is the president himself.'
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