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Hoax call fuels anxiety about nuclear war

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: A hoax call that was made to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari last week by a man who pretended he was Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee and who spoke in a “threatening” tone, fuelled anxiety on Saturday about the potential for an accidental nuclear war in the region in such a situation.

As international concern mounted about the vulnerability of the Pakistani civilian leadership to such a dangerous hoax, as revealed by Dawn newspaper on Saturday, the Pakistan government made a thinly veiled accusation against India for setting off the controversy by disclosing the details to the Pakistani media. Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sherry Rehman condemned “such efforts aimed at using the media for negative diplomacy at a time when tensions are running high between the two countries.”

However, a senior official of the Indian High Commission here said that the Indian briefing was aimed at explaining to the Pakistani media that at no point had India threatened war, and at “damping down” the tensions that had gone up “precisely because of this hoax call.”

As told by Dawn, the Pakistan President’s office bypassed standard verification procedures to put the late-evening call on Friday, November 28, through to Mr. Zardari. The caller, who claimed to be Mr. Mukherjee, threatened Pakistan with military action if it did not act against the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks.

The call led to a high alert in Pakistan’s military establishment. The Pakistan Air Force took to the skies, swiftly moving aircraft to forward bases on the eastern front.

The next day, ISI chief Lieutenant General Shuja Pasha told journalists at a briefing that at the first sign of military aggression from India, the Pakistan Army would withdraw forces from its western border and redeploy them in the east.

Only when U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice called Mr. Mukherjee and asked him about the threatening call was the truth about it discovered.

Mr. Mukherjee, who was in Kolkata at the time the call was purportedly made by him, told Dr. Rice that he had not made any such call.

Ms. Rehman did not explicitly deny that the call was a hoax, but said in her statement that the “so-called hoax” was traced to a phone number in the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi.

The Indian side believes the caller identification particulars were “manipulated” by the use of sophisticated technology as “no call was made from India” to the Pakistan Presidency that day.

The hoax call may have been a well-planned attempt to push the two countries closer to a war, diplomatic observers here said.

The possibility that President Zardari was “suckered” into taking the call cannot be ruled out, a senior diplomat said, hinting at the involvement of “elements” in Pakistan that wanted the situation to escalate.

The call has raised questions about the ease with which the caller accessed President Zardari.

“What if Zardari had decided to order a pre-emptive nuclear attack on India on the basis of that call?” a senior diplomat asked. “You and I wouldn’t be sitting here now.”

The situation was brought under control within 24 hours. But the entire episode has had the net effect of creating a war-like atmosphere in Pakistan.

It had at once made it difficult for the civilian government even to be seen offering assistance to India in the Mumbai blasts, and placed “national honour,” and the need to protect Pakistan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty from alleged Indian designs at the top of the political agenda.

On Saturday morning, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani held a joint meeting with Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and the ISI chief. An official release said they discussed issues of “national importance.”

Revealing the details of the phone call, Dawn said in view of the heightened tensions between the two countries over the Mumbai attacks, senior officials at the presidency transferred the call to Mr. Zardari without first going through procedures such as involving the diplomatic missions of the two countries in either capital.

However, Ms. Rehman sought to allay fears about the systems and procedures in the Presidency.

A statement from her said “all calls received in the Presidency are processed in accordance with an intricately laid down procedure” and that it was “not possible for any call to come through to the President without multiple caller identity verifications.”

According to the Indian side, investigations had established that the call was not made from India.

Dawn detailed that the caller ignored Mr. Zardari’s conciliatory statements, and threatened a war if Pakistan did not take action against the perpetrators of the Mumbai outrage. Following the call, Mr. Zardari summoned Mr. Gilani and the Army chief.

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