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| India-Pakistan |
| Mystery phone call put Pakistan and India on the brink of war |
| 2008-12-09 |
| A mysterious night-time phone call brought nuclear India and Pakistan close to the brink of war at the height of the crisis over the Mumbai terror attacks last week, Pakistani officials said Sunday. They said the "threatening" call was made, ostensibly by India's foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee, to Pakistan's president, Asif Zardari, on Friday, November 28, two days into the Mumbai assaults, in which some 170 people died. India had, by then, declared that the militants who had stormed Mumbai were all from Pakistan. The heated conversation left Zardari believing that India was about to mount an attack on Pakistan and led him to place Pakistan's armed forces onto "high alert," according to Wajid Hasan, Pakistan's ambassador to London, a close associate of Zardari. Given Pakistan's inferiority in conventional forces, it might not have been able to respond except with nuclear weapons to an Indian attack, analysts said. India, however, did not put its forces on the alert. Zardari quickly mobilized Western leaders in an attempt to avert war, telephoning Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State, and British foreign minister David Miliband, among others, who in turn frantically called India, Hasan said. Pakistani reporters who were briefed by the Indian Embassy in Islamabad said they were told that Rice telephoned Mukherjee in the middle of the night and demanded: "Why have you threatened war?" According to those same sources, Mukherjee told Rice he made no such call or threat. Nevertheless, Rice, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates rushed to the region. Indian officials in New Delhi, who like other sources could not be identified by name because they were unauthorized to speak to the public, said they suspected the call had its origin in the Pakistan's own Inter Services Intelligence agency - suggesting a deliberate attempt to foment war between the two neighbors. The news of the tension created by the mysterious "Indian" telephone call emerged as the Bush administration, in the face of growing pressures from India, put Islamabad on notice that it must clamp down on the Islamic militant groups accused of targeting India. According to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who flew to Pakistan after a visit to New Delhi, Indian officials are now threatening the use of force if Pakistan does not move swiftly to act against those responsible for the Mumbai assaults. As if on cue, Pakistani security forces Sunday raided a camp used by members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, the provincial capital of Pakistan part of Kashmir. India had pinpointed the group as the outfit which carried on the attack on Mumbai, though it is only one of dozens of jihadist organizations active in Pakistan. On Sunday, India lashed out at Pakistan over the phone call episode. It was "worrying that a neighboring state might even consider acting on the basis of such a hoax call," Mukherjee said in a statement. "I can only ascribe this series of events (the story of the call) 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," he added. Pakistan's government insisted that the phone call came from a number in Indian's Ministry of External Affairs. Pakistan's ambassador in London said a caller ID system was used to identify the origins of the call. "They did it (made the call). It was not a hoax call but an instrument of psychological warfare. They were trying to scare Pakistan, test the waters for our reaction," Hasan said in an interview. Hasan added that he had received information that India was "about to launch a very drastic action" on that Friday, and it was only intervention from Western leaders that averted it. To add to Pakistani injury, first news of the phone call was leaked to a select group of Pakistani journalists at a briefing given by the Indian embassy in Islamabad, in an apparent attempt to make Zardari's government look weak, according to reporters present and Pakistani officials. It is unclear who actually made the call. Indian officials, who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, theorized that Pakistan's ISI made the call by using technology to make it look like a number from India's foreign ministry. That suggests that the ISI, which is part of the military, was trying to break relations between the governments of the two countries, which had already been torn by the Mumbai assault, in order to leave Pakistan's military in charge. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #14 If there is a nucleur exchange between Paki and India we all loose. The only good thing that could come out of this would be for the world to once again see the total destruction of WMD's. Ummm...if the world can't stop Iran, NK & Syria (not to mention Brazil, South Africa & who-knows-who else) from secretly (and against agreements/treaties) developing nukes, what is your plan to stop them after all the other countries get rid of theirs?? Inquiring minds want to know... |
| Posted by: logi_cal 2008-12-09 19:46 |
| #13 The "WILLY versus NICKY LETTERS" [WW1] goes ICONNECT?? Gut Nuthin. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-12-09 19:35 |
| #12 Pakistan has not been known to make too many decisions based on logic. |
| Posted by: darrylq 2008-12-09 18:45 |
| #11 ISI = Cancer. Remove it. Polonium works well as a pinpoint radiation treatment, but so does high velocity large caliber lead for a more general treatment. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-12-09 18:17 |
| #10 Followed by unicorns and rainbows with every holding hands and singing Kumbia? Sorry, ain't gonna happen. I wish it would, but reality and human nature says otherwise. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-12-09 17:05 |
| #9 If there is a nucleur exchange between Paki and India we all loose. The only good thing that could come out of this would be for the world to once again see the total destruction of WMD's. |
| Posted by: bman 2008-12-09 15:55 |
| #8 Zadari? Mukherjee. Do you have Prince Albert in a can? What? Well you better let him out or we'll nuke your sorry Pakistani asses!" click HAHAHAHAHAHA...Good one! Send Gul a case of scotch! |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-12-09 15:23 |
| #7 "Hi, this is "Is Amanda there? Amanda Hugnkiss?" "Lemme check" "Is there Amanda Hugnkiss here? Hey everybody I want Amanda Hugnkiss!" /Bart Simpson starting wars |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-12-09 14:50 |
| #6 I think Pakistan is forgetting they got their asses handed to them the last three times. Their nukes are smaller and so is their country. India has bigger nukes and a much bigger country and infrastructure. Who do we think would win a nuclear exchange? |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-12-09 14:45 |
| #5 WW4 will be started by a prank call from some wanker DJ That's funny in a tragic sort of way. In the US v Soviets, ballistic missiles served as a deterent because the 30 minutes between launch and impact gave time to launch a counter strike. India and Pakistan are only a few minutes apart as the missile flies. Whoever gets in a good first punch gains a huge advantage. This not only makes for a fast-paced game, but allows events to quickly spiral out of control. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2008-12-09 14:38 |
| #4 I have a hunch that WW4 will be started by a prank call from some wanker DJ. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2008-12-09 14:14 |
| #3 What the old saying? Something like it's better to be in charge in he11 than a servant in heaven? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2008-12-09 13:42 |
| #2 Does India have any kind of anti-ballistic missile defense? I think now is the time to pitch them one if not. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-12-09 13:40 |
| #1 I guess the ISI and the Pakistani military forgot one little detail: One way or another, there wouldn't be anything left to be in charge of. Except perhaps for coordinating efforts to run away from terrorists. |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-12-09 13:25 |