ISLAMABAD, Jan 30 (1996):Pakistani Foreign Minister Aseff Ahmad Ali said on Tuesday India would have to pay “a heavy price” for cross-border attacks.
The official Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) news agency quoted him as telling local reporters that Pakistan would take all necessary steps to protect its people from such attacks.
“Pakistan is against war but our restraint must not be read as a weakness,” Ali said.
He said India’s test of a Prithvi-2 missile, an alleged rocket attack on the Pakistani-ruled part of the disputed Kashmir region last week and suspected plans to conduct a second nuclear test showed its lack of self-confidence.
“We will take all necessary steps to protect our people and India will pay a heavy price for its actions,” Ali said.
India has denied responsibility for Friday’s rocket attack on a village in Pakistani-ruled Azad (free) Kashmir in which 20 people were killed.
Ali called the Indian denial “a stupid lie” and said Pakistan had written to the United Nations about the attack near the U.N.-monitored control line dividing the Himalayan region.
India rules two-thirds and Pakistan the rest of Kashmir, over which the two countries have fought two of their three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947.
