India rejects Pakistan's allegation of planning attack

India on Sunday rejected as "irresponsible and preposterous" Pakistan's statement that New Delhi will attack it again and accused Islamabad of trying to whip up war hysteria in the region.

"India rejects the irresponsible and preposterous statement by the Foreign Minister of Pakistan with a clear objective of whipping up war hysteria in the region," Raveesh Kumar, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said in a statement.

"This public gimmick appears to be a call to Pakistan-based terrorists to undertake terror attack in India," he said.

Pakistan has been advised to use the established diplomatic channels to "share actionable and credible intelligence" it has about terror attacks, he added.

"India reserves the right to respond firmly and decisively to cross-border terrorist attack," the spokesman said, adding said it has been made clear to Pakistan that it cannot absolve itself of responsibility of a cross border terrorist attack in India.

"No attempt at creating an alibi for its complicity in such attacks will succeed. Pakistan needs to take credible and irreversible steps against terrorism operating from all territories under its control rather than making hysterical statements to obfuscate the core issue that bedevils our region: cross-border terrorism."

Earlier, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said India was planning to attack Pakistan after staging a "mishap" in Jammu and Kashmir and this could happen between April 16 and 20.

Qureshi told the media that Islamabad had "reliable intelligence that India is devising a new plan" to attack Pakistan.

"I am speaking responsibly, I hold a position of responsibility, and I know the words I utter will be picked up by the international media," he said.

--IANS

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