India complains about hoax call leak

Reuters:

India's foreign minister accused Pakistan on Sunday of trying to dodge blame over the Mumbai attacks' Pakistani origins by leaking a story about a hoax call to Pakistan's president that set off diplomatic panic.

Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported on Saturday that Pakistan had put its forces on high alert after a caller pretending to be Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee threatened President Asif Ali Zardari while the attacks were still going on.

"I can only ascribe this series of events to those in Pakistan who wish to divert attention from the fact that a terrorist group, operating from the Pakistani territory, planned and launched a ghastly attack on Mumbai," Mukherjee said in a statement released on Sunday.

Pakistan insisted the call came from an official and verified phone number in India's foreign ministry.

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In my earlier post on the hoax call, Pakistan said it did not go through the verification procedures because of the urgency of the situation. While the call may have been a hoax, it may not have been as far from the mark as previously thought according to this Fox News story.

The Pakistani High Commissioner in London, Wajid Shamsul Hassan, says India was ready to launch a military strike on Pakistan in retaliation for the Mumbai terror attacks, Sky News reported.

Hassan said British and American officials had to intervene to prevent India from carrying out an attack.

"On the day of the Mumbai attacks, I got some information in London that India was going to act very drastically against Pakistan in retaliation to what happened," Hassan told Sky News.

The senior diplomat alerted the Pakistani government and President Asif Ali Zardari to the threat.

In turn, Zardari urgently contacted high level British and American officials who intervened to calm the situation.

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Hassan may have been padding his diplomatic resume, but it is not unreasonable to think India considered retaliation. Fortunately cooler heads reigned, but that is likely to put even more diplomatic pressure on Pakistan to deal with the terrorist in their country.

Some of those terrorist and Taliban sympathizers destroyed some trucks carrying supplies to US forces in Afghanistan. I think the terrorism in India and the attacks on US supply lines is probably related and is being done to relieve pressure on the Taliban along the Afghan border where their sanctuaries are at risk from Pakistan government action.