ISLAMABAD, Jan 12: Former chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) and former Navy chief, Admiral (retd) Iftikhar Serohi, does not see eruption of war in the region despite the ongoing stand-off between India and Pakistan.

“Believe me India will not attack,” he said with confidence, adding that New Delhi was just using pressure tactics and wanted to unnerve Pakistan so as to extract maximum concessions.

Talking to Dawn on Saturday, he, however, said that Pakistan would have to be extra vigilant to meet what he termed any “misadventure” by India.

But the former CJCSC called upon the government and the people at large to get tougher against India so that nobody should take the country for granted. “I am watching public sentiments and the mood of the rulers who look worried and I want them not to sound weak and stand up against undue pressures being exerted both by the United States and India,” he pleaded.

He advised President Musharraf to attack India if it crossed the Line of Control (LoC). “Naturally we cannot attack the people of occupied Kashmir, therefore, we will have to launch an attack on other international border to teach a lesson to the enemy,” Admiral (retd) Serohi said.

He recalled that India had in fact started brass-track exercises in early 1990 to launch an aggression against Pakistan. “But then we were too firm and ready for any eventuality that stopped the Indians from doing any mischief,” he said, claiming that he himself had warned some senior Indian military people during their brass-track exercises that they should not underestimate Pakistan and “that my rough handling worked and they (Indians) changed their mind to do any thing against us”.

Mr Serohi did not believe that there could be a limited war as was being perceived by Indian Army chief Gen Sunderrajan Padmanabhan.

“I am very much in the know of things, even after having retired, that Pakistan will retaliate and retaliate very swiftly on other borders in case Indian army tried to cross the Line of Control in Kashmir,” he claimed.

Moreover, he said, there was no guarantee that Pakistan would not use nuclear weapons in case of war with India. “We have acquired nuclear capability and weapons by sacrificing many things and facing sanctions and in the process Brigadier level people were also jailed and all this was not done to avoid the use of this capability as and when required,” he said.