All options open to defend Pak from US incursions: Malik

ISLAMABAD - The defence forces of Pakistan are fully capable of defending the country’s borders, and will use any option to this end in case of recurrence of cross-border air strikes by the US-led forces, Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik stated in the National Assembly.

“Apology is fine. But no more incursion in future. We do not want it to be repeated. Pakistani nation and armed forces are fully capable to defend motherland,” the Daily Times quoted Malik, as saying, referring to the apologies from the United States and NATO over the helicopter strikes in Pakistani territory.

“The government reserves the right to use other options in case of recurrence,” he added.

Responding to points of order in the National Assembly regarding ISAF forces’ incursion into Pakistan, Malik said that NATO’s mandate limited it to carrying out operations within Afghanistan, and any attack inside Pakistan’s territory was a clear violation of it.

The government knew what it had to do about NATO attacks inside Pakistan, he said, adding that the US, NATO and the CIA chief had been told the country would not tolerate the recurrence of any such act.

“We have conveyed the rage of the government and people of the country to ISAF and US,” he stated.

Earlier, in a statement issued on Wednesday, US ambassador in Pakistan Anne W. Patterson had extended an “apology to Pakistan on behalf of the American people for the terrible accident” of Sep 30, when missiles fired from a NATO helicopter flying from Afghanistan hit a Frontier Corps post in Kurram Agency and killed at least two border guards there.

A separate statement issue by the NATO -led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan quoted its commander General David Petraeus as saying: “We deeply regret this loss of life.”

The cross-border air strikes, seen by Pakistan as a violation of its territorial sovereignty, had sparked nationwide rumblings over the US-led incursions. (ANI)