'India wants to keep Pakistan busy in low-intensity war'

Islamabad, Jan 4: Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammed Asif has said India wants to keep Pakistan engaged in a "low-intensity war" but his country is capable of replying to any aggression, Dawn reported Sunday.

"India wants to keep us busy in a low-intensity war or low-intensity engagement on our eastern border," the defence minister said, adding that "they are pursuing the same tactics of keeping our forces busy on all fronts and the anti-Pakistan mentality of the Indian leadership is now fully exposed".

The Pakistani defence minister's reaction came after a 14-year-old girl, from Punjab province's Sialkot city, was killed Saturday during exchange of fire between Pakistani para-military troops and India's Border Security Force (BSF) on the International Border (IB).

He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had expressed a desire to have peace with India and all other neighbouring countries with sincerity, but India did not reciprocate Islamabad's goodwill gesture.

"It seems that India does not understand the language of love and peace," he said.

On shelling along the IB for last few days, Asif said it seemed that India did not want to see Pakistan's success in its fight against terrorism.

India has started cross-border shelling to engage Pakistan's armed forces on the eastern front at a time when it is busy in the fight against terrorists within the country and on the western border, the defence minister said, adding that "It seems that India does not want to see a durable peace in Pakistan, Afghanistan and in the region".

IANS