ISLAMABAD, April 25: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has ruled out the possibility of any unilateral withdrawal of troops in the stand-off with India and said he will not take even one per cent chance on national security matters.

He was asked why not withdraw unilaterally to gain moral ascendancy because in the presence of the American-led coalition troops in the region and even inside Pakistan the possibility of India’s crossing the limits did not exist.

In the context of the prevailing security environment Gen Musharraf said the Indians had resorted to “offensive deployment” and added that “if the military was not alert then I can assure you there were chances of many things that could happen along our borders and the Line of Control”. Our deployment, he said, was aimed at covering every thing.

Asked why the Indians were persisting with the build-up, the military ruler said it was perhaps “to pressure us. (But) We are not coming under pressure. Perhaps their decision was misjudged. They perhaps want to bleed us economically. They are asking a way out but I am not providing that. They have closed the door, let them open it.”

He said the armed forces are supposed to defend the country and they would defend it to the last.

When a parallel was drawn between Pakistan’s deployment along the Afghanistan border to check influx of Taliban and Al Qaeda men and the Indian deployment along the Pakistan borders, possibly to stop their infiltration into India, Gen Musharraf rejected the suggestion, saying “no, not at all”.

He said that Indians had erected fence along the international borders, except in some parts in the desert. “There is no possibility of anyone crossing, except through the gates.”

With regard to the Indian attempts to erect similar fences along the working boundary between Ravi and Chenab corridor and the LoC, he said: “We don’t allow them because we consider it a violation.”

Gen Musharraf claimed that the Indian deployment along the international borders was offensive in nature while they maintained tremendous deployment in the mountains of Kashmir.

He did not believe that Pakistan’s economy, which is heavily dependent on foreign credits and grants, would ever reach the stage of economic fatigue.