ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 6 (UPI) -- Pakistan would respond "very strongly" if India launched an operation similar to the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the Pakistani army chief said.
"Any misadventure of this kind will be responded to very strongly," Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani said in response to a reported comment by the Indian army chief that Indian forces are competent to carry out a similar operation. "There should be no doubt about it."
U.S. forces launched a pre-dawn attack Monday on the compound of the al-Qaida leader in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad, killing bin Laden. Kayani's warning came after a meeting with his top commanders Thursday to discuss Pakistan's intelligence failure to locate bin Laden in Abbottabad, Dawn reported.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since 1947 and relations between the two neighbors, both nuclear-armed countries, remain tense since the deadly Nov. 11, 2008, terror attacks in Mumbai which India says were masterminded by terror groups based in Pakistan.
The Times of India reported Kayani and his military commanders took "serious note of assertions made by the Indian military leadership about conducting similar operations."
The report quoted Pakistani Foreign Minister Salman Bashir also issuing a similar warning.
The Times said the Pakistani leaders were responding to an earlier comment by Indian military leaders that the country could hit terrorists allegedly holed up in Pakistani cities. India says those include Dawood Ibrahim, staying in Karachi, and Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, sought in the Mumbai attacks.
