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As India weighed its options on a response to the terrorist attack near Jammu, Pakistan has said that 'anything could happen any time' with tension increasing at the borders.
A daily The News quoted Pakistan Information Minister Nissar Memon as saying that US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Christina Rocca, who visited India and Pakistan two days ago, has not mentioned Pakistan's involvement in cross border terrorism in her talks with officials in Islamabad.
Talking to reporters in Lahore on Thursday night, he said Rocca, in her media briefing on May 15 in Islamabad, had said, "I am not going to go into details of the discussions that we had, but all the issues on both sides and all the concerns on both the sides of the current confrontation have been raised."
According to the official APP news agency, Memon said Pakistan had already condemned Tuesday's terrorist attack near Jammu.
He said Pakistan had offered to hold a dialogue with India to reduce tension on the borders and avoid any conflict between the two nuclear powers of South Asia, it said.
Memon also rejected the Defence Minister George Fernandes's accusation against Pakistan on the Jammu incident and said Pakistan itself was a victim of international terrorism. He said the US and other western powers had appreciated the stand taken by President Pervez Musharraf on war against terrorism and the measures adopted by Pakistan to counter this menace. He said Pakistan desired to de-escalate the border tension so that peace prevail in the region and allow both the countries to concentrate on development of their respective nations. Meanwhile, Maj Gen Rashid Qureshi, Pakistan Defence spokesman and Press Secretary of Musharraf, said Pakistan would not accept threats from India and was fully prepared to respond to any aggressive action. In an interview to BBC, he said Pakistan had always made efforts to resolve problems through dialogue but it was unfortunate that "India was hurling threats at Pakistan with an aim to start a war one way or the other." "We will not accept these threats but want to resolve all outstanding issues through talks," he said.
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