December 08, 2008	Monday	Zilhaj 9, 1429

NEW DELHI, Dec 7: Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Sunday that claims he had made a threatening telephone call to President Asif Ali Zardari over the recent terror attack on Mumbai were false and intended to divert the world’s attention from New Delhi’s case that a Pakistan-based terrorist group had planned the assault.

“I have seen several misleading stories about a hoax telephone call from me to President Zardari of Pakistan,” Mr Mukherjee said in a statement a day after the Indian foreign ministry said the affair was unworthy of comment.

“We were informed by friends from third countries that Pakistan President Zardari believed that he had received a threatening telephone call from me on Nov 28, after the attack on Mumbai. We immediately clarified to those friends, and we also made it clear to the Pakistan authorities, that I had made no such telephone call,” Mr Mukherjee said. He was commenting on a report in Dawn on Saturday, which was picked up by several Indian dailies. Mr Mukherjee said his last and only conversation with President Zardari was in Islamabad during a visit to Pakistan in May.

He said the only telephone conversation he had with a Pakistani leader since the attack on Mumbai was on the evening of Nov 28 when he spoke to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi when the visitor was addressing a press conference at the Women’s Press Club in New Delhi.

“It is, however, worrying that a neighbouring state might even consider acting on the basis of such a hoax call, try to give it credibility with other states, and confuse the public by releasing the story in part. I can only ascribe this series of events to those in Pakistan who wish to divert attention from the fact that a terrorist group operating from the Pakistani territory planned and launched a ghastly attack on Mumbai.”

The Hindu said on Sunday that, while the Indian foreign ministry had refused to comment on the hoax call, it believed “the thinking within the Indian foreign office is that such disinformation stories could only mean that Inter-Services Intelligence’s dirty tricks department is very much at work. The ISI and the army are trying to divert internal and external attention from their complicity in Mumbai terror and thereby clawing their way into public acceptability in Pakistan.” The newspaper did not quote any source for its report.

“The Indian foreign office is of the view that even to dignify such a disinformation campaign with a comment or denial would mean helping the rogue elements within the Pakistani establishment. The foreign office’s anticipation, though, is that these elements would muddy the waters and the world would see more such acts of disinformation,” it said.“New Delhi is aware that the ISI will continue to make attempts to sow misinformation to bring about a situation in which western countries would lose sight of the main issue at hand -- bringing to book the culprits responsible for the Mumbai blasts and dissuading elements from planning terror attacks -- in favour of an approach that says: ‘Okay little boys, stop fighting.’”