Pakistan on Thursday warned any country against conducting raids on its territory, a day after India’s top soldier said it could carry out operations like the U.S. strike that killed Osama bin Laden.
“We feel that that sort of misadventure or miscalculation would result in a terrible catastrophe,” Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir was quoted by DawnNews television as saying. “There should be no doubt Pakistan has adequate capacity to ensure its own defense.”
His remarks come three days after the United States announced that al Qaeda leader bin Laden was killed in an operation conducted by U.S. special forces without the knowledge of Pakistani officials, on a compound in Abbottabad, north of the capital Islamabad.
Bashir reiterated that Pakistan was not part of the operation, adding his country was concerned about the violation of its sovereignty.
He dismissed allegations that Pakistani security services or elements within the government “were in cahoots with the Al Qaeda.”
“This is a false charge. It flies in the face of what Pakistanis and in particular the Inter-Services Intelligence has been able to accomplish.”
His remarks are thought to be an indirect response to comments by Indian Army chief General Vijay Kumar Singh who said on Wednesday that the Indian armed forces were capable of carrying out similar surgical operations against terrorists.
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti)