Islamabad: Pakistan would cooperate with India to root out terrorism but would pay back in the same coin if any ‘punitive action’ was initiated against it in pursuit of terrorists, President Pervez Musharraf has said.
"Nobody should have this wishful thinking that Pakistan will bear any kind of adventure inside its territory. No one is there who can take any punitive action against Pakistan, as its defence is in strong hands," Musharraf was quoted as saying by Pakisan's online news agency.
This was stated by the Pakistan President while inaugurating an oil refinery and laying the foundation stone for a liquid cargo terminal at Port Qasim near Karachi on Tuesday.
"Nobody should be under any illusion or cast an evil eye at us or talk of punitive action," he said referring to reports in the Pakistani media in this regard.
The news agency reported that Musharraf said his country was ready to cooperate with India to root out terrorism.
For the last few days, Pakistani leaders and officials have been referring to Pakistani media reports about the possibility of India carrying out punitive strikes or hot pursuit of terrorists.
The references were to ‘some reports’ from India without specifying who actually said what.
On Monday, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam, in response to a question about such reports, also said, "Nobody should make this mistake. Pakistan will not allow hot pursuit into its territory".
"Pakistan wants to pursue the path of peace, wants peace process to resume and is ready to discuss all issues," Aslam had said recalling India's move to mass troops along Pakistan's borders in 2001 in response to attack on the Indian Parliament. "Even then we had to return to the negotiations table and that is the option before us."
She had also termed the media reports in this regard as "extremely irresponsible".
In his speech, Musharraf said peace will be achieved through strength and not by weakness.
Pointing to the Israeli strikes on Lebanon to attack Hezbollah positions, he said Israel could act like that because of weakness of Beirut.
On Pakistani's defence allocation, he also claimed that despite the Rs 18 billion increase in this year's defence budget, Pakistan's defence expenditure had come down.
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