ISLAMABAD, Dec 20: Pakistan said here on Thursday it strictly believed in peaceful co-existence and had no territorial ambition against any country. “However, any misadventure on our eastern border or the LoC (Line of Control) in Kashmir would be met with full force.”

In a statement, Pakistan regretted that the Indian prime minister had rejected Islamabad’s “eminently fair proposal for a joint inquiry” into the terrorist attack on the Indian parliament house building last week in New Delhi.

The statement released at a news conference at the foreign office disclosed that the diplomatic efforts were going on between Pakistan and India for peaceful resolution of the situation arising out of the terrorists’ armed attack, apart from President’s prompt condemnation of the attack and expression of sympathy with the bereaved families of those killed, though totally disowning Pakistan’s involvement in it.

Spokesman Aziz Ahmad Khan said Pakistan was making all peaceful efforts not to allow the terrorist attack blamed on Pakistan by India, to escalate existing high tension between the two countries to get out of hand. President Musharraf’s offer of joint inquiry was among the peaceful efforts being made, he said.

The statement said: “We apprehend that the terrorist attack was aimed at maligning and harming the legitimate Kashmiri struggle in the IHK (India-held Kashmir) for realization of Kashmiri people’s inalienable right to self-determination. An impartial and comprehensive inquiry of the incident was necessary to unmask the motives and the ugly face of the perpetrators of this act of terrorism.”

The statement went on to say: “We have noted the Indian prime minister’s comment that ‘the partition of the Indian subcontinent was a reality which should be accepted by all’ and hope that the proponents of ‘Akhand Bharat’ would also hear and adhere to this sane advice.”

The spokesman reiterated that the Kashmiris’ struggle was a “genuine freedom struggle” and enjoyed Pakistan’s full support as also do all other similar freedom struggles round the world. He insisted that the world should differentiate between a freedom struggle and terrorism; and underscored that the struggle in the held Kashmir being waged in pursuance of the UN resolutions, which recognised the right to self-determination of the people of Kashmir, was rightly a genuine and indigenous freedom struggle.

Reported transfer of about 150 pro-Taliban Pakistanis from the northern areas of Afghanistan to India was a matter of concern and Pakistan was getting it verified, the spokesman said.