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No US pressure on India to resume talks with Pak |
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New Delhi’s fears that the new US Af-Pak policy would undermine India’s stand that it would resume peace talks with Pakistan on its own terms and only after perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks were brought to justice, were adequately allayed by two top US officials visiting New Delhi. Talking to newsmen at the end of their talks with Indian leaders on the new US policy, President Obama’s special envoy on Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, Admiral Mike Mullen, sought to quell speculation that the US was nudging India to resume the composite dialogue process with Pakistan. They, however, told newsmen that the Afghanistan problem could not be resolved without New Delhi’s active assistance and they had come to New Delhi to consult and brief on Obama’s policy review.
Their visit had come amid reports that the US wanted India and Pakistan to resume the dialogue process, paused since the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, and lessen tension on their borders. India has, however, made it clear that there was no question of resuming the dialogue with Pakistan until it punished those behind the Mumbai attacks. Pakistan is pressing the US to use its leverage on India to resume the talks and help resolve the Kashmir dispute arguing that the dispute was focusing its attention away from fighting terrorism by Taliban militants in its border region with Afghanistan. A resolution with India would help it contribute more seriously and sincerely to the “campaign against extremism”, a term coined by the Obama Administration in place of Bush’s “war on terror.” Earlier, New Delhi had applied its gentle diplomatic pressure to ensure that India was not included in the mandate of Holbrooke in spite of the US recognising that India continues to be a vital player in the stability of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Although President Obama, in his Af-Pak speech, while setting out benchmarks for progress in the war, did not bring India directly into the equation, senior officials in his Administration have been saying for some time that to get Pakistan fully on board in the war against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, a lasting political and military détente must be established between New Delhi and Islamabad. India has acknowledged that it has a direct stake in the success of Obama’s Af-Pak policy, but has ruled out an early resumption of dialogue with Pakistan. This was forcefully emphasized by Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon when he visited the US last month.
Even before his election, President Obama has been stressing the need to encourage dialogue between India and Pakistan to settle the Kashmir issue. In an article on foreign policy issues published in July 2007, Obama talked about the need to encourage dialogue between India and Pakistan to settle the Kashmir dispute. Later on, he talked about the necessity to “lessen tensions between the two nuclear armed nations that often teeter on the edge of escalation and confrontation”. Again in his Af-Pak speech, Obama talked about pursuing “constructive diplomacy with both India and Pakistan”. A White Paper released recently also talked of the urgent need for a “productive political dialogue” between Islamabad and New Delhi to bolster the capability of the Pakistani Government to fight the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Now, Obama’s current strategy on Afghanistan hinges to a large extent on convincing Pakistan to stop focusing its military resources on India so that its security forces can fully concentrate on the problem in Afghanistan and in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas.
That Pakistan is not serious about addressing the Indian concerns becomes clear from a new phenomenon in the infiltration across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. After a relative lull in infiltration, intelligence agencies and the military suspect that the Taliban fighters are being encouraged to infiltrate into Kashmir for the first time. It is notable that for the first time infiltration began even before the snows on the mountains melt and the passes open. Two major operations were launched by the military in Kupwara and Gorez after reports of infiltration and all the telltale signs were that the latest infiltrators were the Taliban cadres. For the time being, the military has refused to confirm the infiltration of Taliban, but if it is true, it would amount to giving a new direction to the war of terror against India. As is well known, the Taliban fighters are more fanatic, better fighters, heavily indoctrinated to fight for the religion and determined to kill or get killed unlike the other terrorists. India will have to worry not just about the Taliban but Talibanisation. In the last ten years, most of the attacks were by LeT terrorists who did not go out of their way to interfere with Kashmiri traditions. Taliban militants usually arrive along with their social and religious practices which they introduce by force the society they start functioning in.
The Pakistani idea of encouraging the Taliban infiltration may be to convince India that they have a common enemy to fight and the exigencies of the time demanded that they sink their differences, resume the composite dialogue, resolve the Kashmir issue and join hands in the fight against the Taliban. The US is likely to fall in line as the very name of Taliban sends its officials rush to New Delhi and Islamabad in droves to assess the situation and take the corrective course.
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