Chris Blattman

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Hoax of nuclear proportions

It puzzles me that this has not gotten more media attention:

Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani President, took a telephone call from a man pretending to be Pranab Mukherjee, India’s Foreign Minister, on Friday, November 28, apparently without following the usual verification procedures, they said.

The hoax caller threatened to take military action against Pakistan in response to the then ongoing Mumbai attacks, which India has since blamed on the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), they said.

Mr Zardari responded by placing Pakistan’s air force on high alert and telephoning Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, to ask her to intervene.

Via Meaningfulness.

2 Responses

  1. FYI — Some Pakistani bureaucrats are claiming that the proper verification procedures were taken and that the call was no hoax. Pakistani newspapers are reporting the incident as if the cause is still unclear. (Check out Dawn for more. Sorry, I’m too lazy to find the links.)

  2. An attempt to provoke India-Pakistan conflict. Folks arguing this attack is designed to draw Pakistan’s military from the counterinsurgency fight in FATA, back to Pakistan’s eastern front predicted something like this- though the expectation was probably for something more kinetic.

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