Targets inside India 'identified' if attacked: ISI chief

ISLAMABAD: ISI's powerful chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha has warned India that any Abbottbad-like attack by it would invite a befitting response from Pakistan as targets inside the country "had already been identified" and "rehearsal" carried out.

Pasha's warning came as he addressed the in-camera joint session of the Senate and National Assembly held behind closed doors on Friday. Pasha is facing fire over the inability of the ISI to track down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, where he was living, before he was annihilated by US special forces in a covert operation on May 2.

In an apparent response to statements from New Delhi that India too can carry out strikes inside Pakistan, Pasha said any attack from the east would invite a befitting response, the Dawn reported.

He said a contingency plan is in place and targets inside "India had already been identified".

Earlier on May 5, Pakistan army and the government had reacted sharply warning India against any Abbottabad-like "misadventure", saying it would be responded to "very strongly" that could lead to a "terrible catastrophe".

The warning had come after a meeting of the Corps Commanders chaired by Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani which decided to reduce the level of US military personnel in Pakistan and threatened to review intelligence cooperation with it, if a repeat of "violation of sovereignty" like on May 2 occurred.

Reacting to statements by Army Chief Gen VK Singh and Air Chief Air Marshal PV Naik that India has the capacity to carry out an operation similar to US forces eliminating Osama bin Laden, first Pakistan Foreign Secretary had told a press conference that any country that attempts to "mimic" the unilateral act of the US will find it has made a "basic miscalculation".

India scoffs off ISI chief’s threat as ‘tall claim’

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/india-scoffs-off-isi-chiefs-threat-as-tall-claim/articleshow/8366651.cms

NEW DELHI: India is unlikely to give any credence to Pakistan’s ISI chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha’s threat that any Abbottabad-like attack would invite a befitting response, calling it a “tall claim” to hide his own failure.

Brushing aside Pasha’s warning, government sources said the ISI chief is not an operational man and the statement was just a reflection how frustrated he was after Pakistani establishment’s failure to detect the US raid on the hideout of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

“They should better concentrate on domestic problems rather than looking towards India,” an official said, pointing to the scores of terrorist strikes taking place in Pakistan everyday, including killing of a Saudi diplomat in Karachi today.

Officials said facing all round flak after the Abbottabad raid, the ISI chief is now trying to divert the attention of the Pakistani people by making “tall claims” like the one he has made on Friday.

“We understand their problem. In fact we sympathise with them. Our advise is, please concentrate on your domestic problems rather than looking towards us,” the official said, adding that the Indian armed forces are fully capable to thwart any Pakistani misadventure.

In his in-camera address to the joint session of the Senate and National Assembly of Pakistan on Friday, Pasha had warned India that any Abbottabad-like attack by it would invite a befitting response from Pakistan as targets inside the country “had already been identified” and “rehearsal” carried out.

Pasha is under fire over the inability of the ISI to track down Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, where he was living, before he was annihilated by US special forces in a covert operation on May 2.

This is all just a giant kabuki dance, meant to fool the world's general public into thinking that at least significant elements of Pakistan's government were not complicit in hiding bin Laden in plain sight.

I seriously doubt there's a government in the world that doesn't know the actual truth. They're willing to let this sort of public farce continue unchallenged, as the consequences of exposing the true situation would destabilize Pakistan in ways that can have no good results.

Thanks sukhoi-30mki.

ISI's powerful chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha has warned India that any Abbottbad-like attack by it would invite a befitting response from Pakistan as targets inside the country "had already been identified" and "rehearsal" carried out... The warning had come after a meeting of the Corps Commanders chaired by Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani which decided to reduce the level of US military personnel in Pakistan and threatened to review intelligence cooperation with it... Reacting to statements by Army Chief Gen VK Singh and Air Chief Air Marshal PV Naik that India has the capacity to carry out an operation similar to US forces eliminating Osama bin Laden, first Pakistan Foreign Secretary had told a press conference that any country that attempts to "mimic" the unilateral act of the US will find it has made a "basic miscalculation".

We should have made two simultaneous moves -- the Allblottedoutnotbad hit on Osama, and snuffed Ahmed Shuja Pasha at the same time (but not taken credit for it -- maybe done as a jihadist-style IED hit. OTOH, the fact that ASP has been playing host to Osama, and is probably behind the murders of Benazir Bhutto, the Mumbai mass-murders, and even the paranoid Islamic nuts don't believe the loony talk about how Osama's DNA was planted on the site, or that he was cloned, etc etc, probably means that taking out Osama will have as one result the elimination of ASP.

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