ISLAMABAD, Oct 16: Pakistan said on Tuesday its army would exercise “maximum restraint” against Indian forces along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary, but would retaliate if attacked.

The military spokesman, Maj-Gen Rashid Qureshi, also said there was now relative calm on the LoC after Monday’s exchange of fire.

He also rejected as “totally inaccurate” a statement by Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes that New Delhi had ordered Monday’s firing in response to intrusions from the Pakistani side.

“Pakistan will continue to exercise restraint. But if fired upon, it will retaliate and the whole responsibility will be on India,” said Maj-Gen Qureshi.

“There is no infiltration, that is a totally incorrect statement that he (Fernandes) has made.”

“They always make such excuses,” he said, accusing Indian authorities of “stage-managing incidents” inside their country and in occupied Kashmir in order to blame Pakistan.

The spokesman said Monday’s firing, during US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s visit, appeared to be in similar circumstances to the massacre of Sikhs in a village in occupied Kashmir when former president Bill Clinton visited India in March last year.—Reuters