India has said its foreign minister will give a considered response tomorrow to Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf’s nation-wide address. The Pakistani President used the broadcast to appeal for national unity in the face of the threat of possible war with India.
An Indian foreign ministry spokeswoman, Nirupama Rao, told a domestic television station that the response would be made by the minister of external affairs in a press conference tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. local time or 10.00 am GMT.
The spokeswoman said "this is really not the time for a kneejerk response... In the past we have seen that what you see is not what you get as far as Pakistan is concerned."
Musharraf denied any militants were crossing the Line of Control, a military ceasefire line dividing Pakistan from Indian-controlled Kashmir, and said Pakistan did not want war with India but was ready to respond with full force if attacked.
Both India and Pakistan have moved to the brink of war in recent months after a series of attacks in India that New Delhi has blamed on Pakistan-based militants opposed to its rule in the Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir.