Islamabad: Pakistan is rallying for international support as tensions mount with India. As part of its diplomatic efforts, Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir met ambassadors of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - the United States of America, Britain, China, France and Russia.
He also met the ambassadors of Italy, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Germany, and Turkey, to drive home the message that relations with India have deteriorated.
But the Pakistan Foreign Secretary's most crucial meeting was with Indian High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal on Friday.
According to reports in the Pakistani media, Pal was warned that surgical strikes by Indian armed forces on any target inside Pakistan would be considered an act of war.
Pal was accompanied by his deputy Manpreet Vohra.
Bashir also asked India to defuse tension and to accept Pakistan's offer of a joint investigation into 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
Pal had returned to Islamabad just a couple of days back from New Delhi, where he attended a meeting of Indian diplomats posted abroad with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
PTI Correspondent Rezaul Lashkar reports that India appears reluctant to talk its way out of this crisis.
"Both the sides are reluctant to give out the details of the meeting but according to the Pakistan foreign office the Pakistani Foreign Secretary had asked the Indian Government to de-escalate the tension and urged them to come back on the various proposals that had been put forth by them. The proposals basically include joint terror committees etc. But the Indian MEA is extremely reluctant this time to get into debate and discussion and let them forget the real issue," reports Laskhar.
Earlier, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi held telephonic discussion with his Chinese and Iranian counterparts, both of whom had earlier spoken to Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Talking to Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Qureshi stressed the need for India to pursue "a policy of restraint and responsibility".
Yang promised that China would remain in close contact with Pakistan in pursuance of peace and stability in the region.
Qureshi also told Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki terrorism was a regional concern which required cooperation of all countries with Mottaki assuring him that Iran would talk with both Pakistan and India for defusing the tension.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has begun moving thousands of troops to the Indian border on Friday, intelligence officials said, sharply raising tensions triggered by the Mumbai terror attacks.
India has blamed that 10 Pakistan-trained Lashkar-e-Toiba carried out the Mumbai terror attacks in which more than 200 people were killed.
One of the terrorist, Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, who was captured alive during the attacks, has already revealed that he belongs to a village in Pakistan's Punjab province.
Kasab has also told investigators that he along with nine other LeT terrorists sailed for Mumbai from a port in Karachi and the terrorists were in constant touch with their handlers based in Pakistan.
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