Islamabad: Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, in a speech at a midnight function to mark the country's 59th anniversary of independence, cautioned India against any military adventure against his country.
"We do not threaten anyone and we do not accept threats from anybody," he said in reference to reported suggestions by some Indian political parties of punitive retaliation for the July 11 serial bombings in Mumbai that killed over 200 people.
"No one should remain under any illusion that it can coerce Pakistan; it is not possible," Musharraf was quoted as saying by the Urdu language daily Ausaf.
India blames Pakistan-based militants for the Mumbai terror attacks. Musharraf had recently offered to cooperate with the Indian investigation into the blasts if New Delhi shared ‘evidence’ with Pakistan.
"We are a strong nation and no one can threaten or coerce us. No one can punish us or cross the Line of Control," Musharraf said of the de facto border that divides the disputed Jammu and Kashmir state between Pakistan and India.
Without naming India, the Pakistani leader called for a change in ‘mindset’ and demanded that his country be treated with ‘sovereign equality’ in any peace deal at the function held at the President House late on Sunday.
India deferred the peace talks, known as the composite dialogue, immediately after the Mumbai blasts.
However, meeting in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka for a regional summit early this month, foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India decided to resume the peace process but failed to give any dates for future meetings.
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