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| Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani talks to Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.—APP File photo |
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday warned the US and its Nato allies that any future cross-border attack would meet with a “detrimental response.”
US-Pakistani relations plunged to a new low last month after a cross-border Nato air strike which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
Gilani made the comments while meeting army chief of staff General Ashfaq Kayani, the prime minister’s secretariat said in a statement.
“The democratic government would not allow similar attack on the country’s sovereignty and any attempt in future will definitely meet the detrimental response,” the statement quoted Gilani as saying.
Pakistani security officials earlier said they had upgraded the air defence system on the Afghan border to make it capable of shooting down aircraft.
Kayani informed the prime minister of the steps taken on the western boarders to revamp defence capabilities aimed at effectively countering any future incursion into Pakistani territory.
“The government and the people of Pakistan were ready to provide the armed forces all the necessary resources to bolster its defence and professional capabilities,” Gilani said.
Pakistan shut its border to Nato supply convoys on November 26, hours after the deadliest single cross-border attack of the 10-year war in Afghanistan.
The government also ordered the United States to leave the Shamsi air base in the southwest, widely reported to be a hub in the covert CIA drone war against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistan’s border area with Afghanistan.
According to sources the Shamsi base has been vacated completely by the US forces on Friday. UAE officials were expected to take charge of the base from Saturday.
The November 26 attack brought the fragile Pakistani-US alliance to a fresh low, already reeling from a covert American raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden near the Pakistani capital on May 2.
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