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India’s diplomatic offensive against Pakistan |
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Even as the US continues to work on Pakistan to respond to Indian concerns over terrorism, New Delhi on its own has started to put diplomatic pressure on Islamabad through Pakistan’s key allies such as China, Saudi Arabia and Iran. External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee urged the visiting Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister, Saud Al-Faisal, on Dec. 26 to use his country’s good offices to urge Pakistan to stop fanning terrorism, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took up the issue with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Dec 27. He telephoned Ahmedinejad on Dec. 27 and asked him to impress upon Pakistan that it needed to move beyond denial to action on curbing terrorism. He asked the Iranian President to pressure Pakistan to take concrete action against the handlers of those who carried out the Mumbai attacks last month.
Mukherjee, besides taking up the issue with the Saudi Foreign Minister who was on a visit to New Delhi, spoke to US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Dec. 26. He told them that Pakistan was not doing enough against those behind the Mumbai carnage. He urged them to impress upon Islamabad the necessity to cooperate in bringing to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack. The Chinese Foreign Minister later had a separate telephonic talks with Pakistan Foreign Minister Qureshi. A Foreign Ministry statement in Beijing said, Yang asked both India and Pakistan to “properly handle” their relations in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks through dialogue and consultations. He hoped these two neighbours of China will bear in mind the need to maintain regional peace and stability
In his talks with the Saudi Foreign Minister, Mukherjee apprised him of the chill in India-Pakistan ties in the wake of the audacious Nov. 26 Mumbai attack. The Saudi Minister appreciated the restraint exercised by India and described terrorism as an “evil” and “cancer”. He underlined that all countries needed to cooperate to destroy the scourge completely. Mukherjee is believed to have impressed upon Al-Faisal the need to ensure that those behind the Mumbai carnage in Pakistan are brought to justice at the earliest. Given the financial aid and subsidised oil it provides to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia has always influenced major decisions made in Islamabad.
India is also targeting some other Muslim countries which have leverage on Pakistan. After the Saudi Foreign Minister and the visit of Oman Foreign Minister Alawai Bin Abdullah last week, the UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdallah bin Zayid Al-Nahyan, will be visiting New Delhi on January 6.
Condoleezza Rice, with whom also Mukherjee spoke on telephone, has asked Pakistan to do everything it can to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror shrikes to justice. She told FINANCIAL TIMES in Washington on Dec. 22, that Pakistan has got to do everything that it can to help bring the perpetrators to justice. She said Pakistan should really take up the issue of terrorism and extremism.
State Department spokesman, McCormack said on Dec. 23, that the US is asking Pakistan “every single day to do whatever it can” to track down those responsible for the Mumbai strikes and prevent future terrorist attacks, but would leave it to Islamabad how to bring them to justice.
The US also called Pakistan National Security adviser, Mahmud Ali Durrani, to Washington while sending once again the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, to Islamabad to urge Pakistan to act though. Durrani, who went to Washington on Dec. 21, met Rice and other Pentagon and National Security Council officials. Informed sources said, Durrani was given a tough message by top US officials that Pakistan must follow intent with action while tackling the terrorist groups and individuals which India blames are responsible for Mumbai attacks. In her meeting with Durrani, Ms Rice told him that the US was not satisfied with what Pakistan had done so far for eradicating terrorism from its soil. The Mumbai terrorist attacks “cannot be swept under the carpet”, he was told.
A similar message was conveyed when the highest ranking US military official, Admiral Mike Mullen, visited Pakistan on Dec. 22. Mullen, had meetings with the Pakistan Defence Minister, ISI chief Shuja Pasha and Army Chief Ashfaq Kayani amid tensions between Pakistan and India over the Mumbai attacks, asked Pakistan to satisfy India’s demand for the arrest of terror elements who were responsible for the Mumbai error attacks. He asked Pakistan to shut down terrorist training camps in the country. He urged them to support judicial efforts to prosecute the cases against members of the LeT “fully and transparently.”
Cranking up pressure on Pakistan further, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Richard Boucher, told Pakistan to “eliminate” the perpetrators of the unprecedented Mumbai attacks. He said, the US still has a lot of more to do. In an interview to All India Radio, he said, Pakistan’s immediate focus should be to get rid of the terrorists and stop them from doing anything more.
Meanwhile, top US intelligence official, John Michael McConell is camping in New Delhi along with FBI officials in connection with the probe into 26/11. Among others, he held meetings with Home Minister P. Chidambaram, National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan and senior Indian intelligence officials. The FBI has grilled Ajmal Kasab for nine hours and on the basis of his confessions, the American intelligence is planning to confront Pakistan, which is still in denial mode, with the evidence that their own investigation has thrown up.
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