US to Pak: Don’t retaliate if India attacks

Pakistan’s civilian and military leaderships are learnt to be under intense American pressure not to retaliate if the Indian Air Force carries out surgical strikes on Lashkar-e-Taiba  (LeT) training camps inside its territory. Islamabad has, however, said it will not tolerate any such action.

Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, tried to persuade the military and political leadership not to retaliate militarily if India carried out air strikes, a source said.

He also told Pakistan not to deploy F-16 and F-7 fighter jets at Lahore and Muzaffarabad air bases for retaliatory action, which could trigger full-scale war. Mullen, who met Pakistan’s army chief, general Ashfaq Kiyani, and ISI chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha in Islamabad on Monday, also pressed Pakistan to go beyond merely arresting LeT leaders and others involved in the Mumbai terror attacks by launching prosecution cases against them.

But Pakistan, which has put its air force on high alert, made it clear to Mullen that it would at once discontinue logistical support to America in its war on terror if India carried out air strikes. Pakistan also warned that it would move its troops from its western frontiers to the border with India.