Pak claims Indian officials, army trying to subvert PM agenda

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan today accused Indian establishment and its armed forces of trying to subvert Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's agenda by making statements which were a "matter of grave concern".

"I only see them (statements) as symptomatic of trends and tendencies within Indian establishment and their armed forces to subvert the agenda of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"I don't think Indian leadership would really subscribe to this," Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir said in a press briefing here.

His statement came a day after Indian Army chief General V K Singh said the country's armed forces were "competent" to carry out the US-like operation in Pakistan against al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

Bashir, who defended the capabilities of ISI and Pakistan military in the wake of the US operation that killed bin Laden, said, "The statements that you refer to are indeed a matter of grave concern."

Stressing on the military strength of Pakistan, Bashir said if any country would ever act on the assumption that it has a might to unilateralism of any sorts, as far as Pakistan is concerned, will find themselves indulging in misadventure.

Mincing no words, in an apparent reference to India, Bashir said, "We see a lot of bravado in our own region... from the military, air force, which state that this can be repeated.

"We feel that sort of misadventure or miscalculation could result in terrible catastrophe."

Prime Minister Singh has been keen on having normal ties with Pakistan by bridging trust deficit between the two countries and recently India agreed to hold comprehensive talks on all bilateral issues, more than two years after New Delhi suspended talks with Islamabad following Mumbai terror attacks.