Pak, India spar over threatening hoax call

New Delhi, Dec.8 (ANI): India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has regretted that Pakistan is giving credibility to a 'hoax' call, and charged it with resorting to a tactic to confuse the public by only releasing part of the story.

Claiming that the call was a bid to divert attention from what he called 'Pakistani-based' elements' attack on India, Mukherjee flayed Pakistan for putting its military on alert after the call.

He clarified that the last time he had spoken to Zardari was during his visit to Islamabad in May and that the reports about his telephonic call to the president were 'misleading'.

"We were informed by friends from 'third countries' that President Zardari believed that he had received a threatening telephone call from me on November 28, after the attack on Mumbai," the Daily Times quoted Mukherjee as saying in a statement here.

"We immediately clarified to those friends, and we also made it clear to Pakistani authorities, that I had made no such telephone call," the minister said.

However, Zardari's spokesman Farhatullah Babar continues to maintain that the hoax call was from India, and specifically from the Indian External Affairs Ministry.

Babar called the Indian minister's statement in which he denied making any phone call to President Zardari ridiculous.

He said it was regrettable that instead of investigating the matter, India had levelled allegations against Pakistan. (ANI)