KARACHI, Dec 7 (IPS) - A hoax phone call from India to Pakistan's President threatening military reprisals in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on Mumbai city, hyped up by media, brought the nuclear-armed neighbours close to conflict. However, analysts believe that the hostilities arising from the attack and the media hype can still be contained. The three-day standoff in Mumbai was barely over on Nov. 28 when the late-evening phone call was made, supposedly from India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari. Because of the heightened tensions, his staff bypassed routine procedures and transferred the call to Zardari. The imposter "directly threatened to take military action if Islamabad failed to immediately act against the supposed perpetrators of the Mumbai killings" according to a report in the daily Dawn, Pakistan of Dec. 6, which reveals that the call was a hoax that sent Pakistan into a state of `high alert' last weekend, "eyeing India for possible signs of military aggression". The "aggressive" call, as the news trickled out, created grounds for anger in Pakistan and was used to create public opinion against sending the chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to India as the Pakistan government had agreed to do. A tussle over the issue between the Pakistan army and the civilian government ended with the government reneging on its promise and saying that only a `representative' of the ISI would be sent.
The US neocons' frolic with talk of nuclear strikes must cease, and the human and environmental cost of the use of DU exposed for the supreme crime it continues to be.
