Nuclear-armed Pakistan put its forces on high alert after a hoax caller pretending to be the Indian foreign minister spoke to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in a threatening manner on Nov. 28, two days after the militant attacks on Mumbai began, the Dawn newspaper reported yesterday.
“It’s true,” a diplomat with knowledge of the exchanges said when asked whether the newspaper report was correct.
The caller had ignored Zardari’s conciliatory language and directly threatened to take military action if Pakistan failed to act immediately against the supposed perpetrators of the slaughter in Mumbai.
Throughout the next 24 hours Pakistan’s air force was put on “highest alert” as the military watched anxiously for any sign of Indian aggression, the report said.
A senior Pakistani government official said they were checking the Dawn report. Zardari is currently on an official visit to Turkey.
Tensions have been running high since India blamed Islamist militants based in Pakistan for the three-day rampage in the financial capital last week that killed 171 people.
“War may not have been imminent, but it was not possible to take any chances,” Dawn quoted a senior Pakistani official as saying.
The caller was put through to Zardari because some senior members of the presidential staff decided to bypass standard procedures, including verification of the caller and involvement of diplomatic missions.
Dawn reported that the caller, posing as Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, also tried to telephone US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but because of specific checks by US officials, the call was not put through.
Meanwhile, Several Indian newspapers on Friday cited unidentified intelligence sources as saying that Pakistan’s powerful spy agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), was involved in training the gunmen.
The Indian Express said intercepts of conversations between the gunmen and their handlers showed the use of communication pathways often used by the ISI.
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