Shortly after the Mumbai attacks, I asked whether India faced a trial of patience in persuading Pakistan — with help from the United States — to take action against the Islamist militants it blamed for the assault on its financial capital. India’s approach of relying on American diplomacy rather than launching military action led to some soul-searching among Indian analysts when it failed to deliver immediate results. But is it finally beginning to bear fruit?
Former Indian diplomat M K Bhadrakumar writes in the Asia Times that diplomatic efforts over the Mumbai attacks are entering a crucial phase. ”After having secured New Delhi’s assurance that India will not resort to a military strike against Pakistan, Washington is perceptibly stepping up pressure on Islamabad to act on the available evidence regarding the Mumbai attacks.”
Earlier this week, Pakistan admitted that the lone surviving Mumbai gunman, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, was a Pakistani. The head of Pakistan’s powerful spy agency, the Inter-Services intelligence or ISI, also gave a conciliatory interview to German magazine Der Spiegel. Lieutenant-General Ahmad Shuja Pasha ruled out the possibility of war with India. “We may be crazy in Pakistan, but not completely out of our minds. We know full well that terror is our enemy, not India,” Dawn newspaper quoted him as saying.
Indian newspapers have seen Pakistan’s acceptance of Kasab’s nationality as a step in the right direction, while recognising that further progress will be slow. ”The admission by Pakistan is also an indicator for the establishment that the diplomatic pressure is finally getting some results,” the Economic Times said. “But New Delhi is also aware that it will take a lot of time and effort to push Pakistan to take even small steps.”
So how is that going to play out in the context of a new administration taking over in Washington, a government in Delhi coming to the end of its term and facing elections due by May, and a civilian government in Pakistan still trying to find its feet after years of military rule?.
Bhadrakumar says that “the United States could be on the threshold of a big breakthrough in the geopolitics of the South Asian region” if it succeeds in convincing Pakistan to crack down on Islamist militants while also nudging India and Pakistan to work together to put their relationship on a sounder footing.
But that will require quick work by the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama, which according to the New York Times is likely to include the appointment of Richard Holbrooke as a special envoy for India and Pakistan, and a further trial of patience for the outgoing Congress-led government in Delhi.
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Stupid Indian & Pakistanis .. Fighting each other off to please the Tyrant Americans. babbitts just Babbitts no more …
- Posted by elbossUmair wrote:
- Posted by ChuckFew incidents of exchange of fire took place, few brave officers on the border did open fire on the Americans, the above article tells the rest of the story how the US underestimated Pakistan’s strength.
Ya right, we are so afraid of the Pakistan army that we don\’t fly 200 drone missions a day in Pakistan territory and take care of Pakistan problems for them. I can\’t think of a single other country that is so weak that it lets the US air force fly missions over it\’s own boarders. Wait let me think Iran and India both cross Pakistan boarders to do the Pakistan army\’s job for them. That is because your army is so weak that even its own citizens don\’t respect them. You send 35,000 soldiers to Swat valley, a area about the size of Washington DC, and they still get their butts kicked by a army of about 1000. I am sure that other countries that border Pakistan have to cross into Pakistan just to keep law and order.
Hussain,
I wonder how you know so much about India have you ever been here. Or may be you also have lack of knowledge because pakistani media shows all such things so that they can make more terriosts in India. And how do you think hindus and sikhs are treated in Pakistan, We can atleaast say that our president was a muslim can you say the same about anyone hindu or sikh who is a minister there. I guess not. the thing is you only hear what you want to here but dont see the other side. why are you so concerned about india may because we are doing much better then you. that is why you want to blow our sensex or target big IT companies. you want to hit our economy, which effects people from all religion including Muslims in India, and when I talk to my muslim friends in India they to give gali to pakistanis because they are Indian first. And you talk so much about religion. Are you sure out of 180 people who died in Mumbai non of them were muslims, so which means you being a Muslim is killing muslims is that right????
- Posted by salman khan-IndiaMuslims should be last to complain of illtreatment. Muslims have been agressors all over the world. India has given land share to Muslims as “Pakistan” though retained its secular character in 1947. Nehru only through its generousity took the matter of Kashmir to UN in 1947, otherwise if left to Indian army (as what pakistan wants now) not a inch of kashmir would have been with pakistan. Anyway to India Pakistan not more than a tool which China and America use to sabotage India’s growth. See what pakistan has become in 60 years and where India has reached after independence.
- Posted by Umesh Gupta@Salman
Its karma baby! Pakistan tried to break Kashmir off from India and is today on the fringes of breaking up itself. As far as Kashmir, why not let the Baluchs and Pashtuns and Taliban carve out their own territory in Pakistan? Nehru made mistakes and one statement by one man has been repeated by Pakistanis over and over - the plebiscite one. Kashmir gets more concessions than any Indian state and still they are in poverty. Why? because of Pakistani sponsored terrorism. I didn’t know Israel was doing anything in India - I thought Israel was in the Middle East!. And about Indian neighbours complaining - the whole world is now looking at Pakistan as a migraine…n who slaughtered thousands of Kashmiri Pandits and uprooted them from their homes?
- Posted by SampatIndia should send half million troops to Afganistan and kill all taleban terrorist so atleast half of the problems is fixed.
- Posted by VijayWho says Kashmir is India’s territory? Nehru & UN both said that plebiscite will be held in Kashmir, it will be solely kashirmi people who will decide their fate. why more than 60,000 kashmiris lost their life in Indian held Kashmir ? Pakistani do not want fight with India but if u wish we are ready to give u a befitting answer, beware! don’t underestimate us. Let me explain why Indian neighbors like poor Bhutan, Nepal, Srilanka and china and everybody in surrounding complaining about Indian hegemonic designs? What is Israel is doing in India? Who burnt Samjhota express? who attacked golden temple? who burnt Christian clergy alive in India?
- Posted by salman khanIndia needs to follow this path right from now
“Make war while in peace, Make peace while in war”
Master Tsun Tzu
Beasthood isnt any shameful charectrestic of a civilisation, it matter how they use it and for what objective?
- Posted by Raj