Pakistan feared Indian attack after Mumbai

LONDON - Pakistan feared India was planning a military strike amid heightened tensions between the two nuclear powers following the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan’s high commissioner to London told the BBC Saturday.

Wajid Shamsul Hassan said there was evidence that India wanted “to teach Pakistan a lesson.”

New Delhi has pointed the finger at Islamabad over last week’s devastating Mumbai siege by Islamic militants which killed 172 people, including nine attackers.

Pakistan has said it is awaiting “concrete proof” that a group based there was responsible.

“This is what we were told by our friends, that there could possibly be a quick strike at some of the areas they suspect to be the training camps, an air raid or something of that sort,” Hassan told the broadcaster.

“There was circumstantial evidence that India was going to make a quick strike against Pakistan to teach her a lesson,” he said. Hassan said he alerted Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari to the danger and Islamabad’s concerns were passed on to US and British officials who intervened to calm the situation, according to the BBC.

Sunday, AFP