India scoffs off ISI chief's threat as 'tall claim'

New Delhi, May 16: India is unlikely to give any credence to Pakistan's ISI chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha's threat that any Abbottabad-like attack would invite a befitting response, calling it a "tall claim" to hide his own failure.

Brushing aside Pasha's warning, government sources said the ISI chief is not an operational man and the statement was just a reflection how frustrated he was after Pakistani establishment''s failure to detect the US raid on the hideout of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

"They should better concentrate on domestic problems rather than looking towards India," an official said, pointing to the scores of terrorist strikes taking place in Pakistan everyday, including killing of a Saudi diplomat in Karachi today.

Officials said facing all round flak after the Abbottabad raid, the ISI chief is now trying to divert the attention of the Pakistani people by making "tall claims" like the one he has made on Friday.

"We understand their problem. In fact we sympathise with them. Our advise is, please concentrate on your domestic problems rather than looking towards us," the official said, adding that the Indian armed forces are full capable to thwart any Pakistani misadventure.

In his in-camera address to the joint session of the Senate and National Assembly of Pakistan on Friday, Pasha had warned India that any Abbottabad-like attack by it would invite a befitting response from Pakistan as targets inside the country "had already been identified" and "rehearsal" carried out.

Pasha is under fire over the inability of the ISI to track down Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, where he was living, before he was annihilated by US special forces in a covert operation on May 2.

PTI