India-Pakistan Relations

[ajtr]

India-Pakistan talks: read between the lines
Analysis: It's official. New Delhi lost the stalemate.​

By Jason Overdorf - GlobalPost
Published: February 11, 2011 12:33 ET in Asia

NEW DELHI, India — Nominally, India and Pakistan agreed to resume high level peace talks Thursday.

But in reality, New Delhi bent over backwards to give in to Islamabad before the proposed negotiations even begin — by granting the Kashmir dispute equal status on the agenda with the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai.

So how did India go from refusing to talk to begging for talks?

New Delhi believes that it has no choice but to talk eventually and surmises that the anger over the Mumbai attacks has faded enough over the past two years to make a resumption possible. Meanwhile, with the expected drawdown and eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces in Afghanistan on the horizon, India may believe that a magnanimous stance today could help it to negotiate a stronger post-conflict role for itself in Kabul.

"I think it was necessary for us to discuss Afghanistan ... ," Indian foreign minister S.M. Krishna told reporters in New York Thursday, according to the Times of India newspaper. "India has been playing a very positive role in trying to build Afghanistan in terms of our volunteers who have gone there for capacity building and so I think Afghanistan had to be included," the paper quoted Rao as saying.

Unfortunately, what's more likely is that resuming the dialogue will just give Islamabad — which is wary even of India's limited present role in Afghanistan — another chance to run circles around India's negotiators.

Already, India has agreed to discuss a whole range of issues, including Pakistan's claims to territory in Indian-administered Kashmir, which will inevitably remove the focus from Pakistan's alleged support of terrorist groups that attack India.

At a 90-minute meeting between Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir on the sidelines of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation meeting in Thimphu, Bhutan, on Sunday, the two countries agreed to a series of secretary-level meetings to discuss, among other issues, confidence-building measures like cross-border bus services, the dispute over Sir Creek (between India's Gujarat and Pakistan's Sindh province) and Pakistan's desire to redraw the borders of Kashmir.

"The reality is that India and Pakistan cannot afford to turn their backs to each other, that they must engage in dialogue which is, as I said, serious and sustainable and comprehensive," Rao said in a televised interview on Thursday, when the substance of the Sunday meeting was disclosed.

It's taken two years, but that's a pretty big flip-flop.

Once, India claimed it would not resume normal diplomatic relations until Islamabad cracked down on terrorist groups operating with impunity in Pakistan and began a vigorous prosecution of the alleged perpetrators of the November 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai. That vigorous prosecution never happened, of course. But as the United States proved unable to exert any pressure on Pakistan and instead began pressuring India to return to the negotiating table, New Delhi swiftly went from refusing to talk to begging to talk.

To make matters worse, China stepped up to back Pakistan's military shadow government. And events like the assassination of Punjab governor Salman Taseer for opposing Pakistan's blasphemy laws — which suggest that Pakistan's radicals are gaining ground — have convinced India that it has no choice but to backpedal. Playing hardball, the logic runs, will only give Pakistan's hardliners more room for saber-rattling — and more credibility on the street. If it wasn't clear before, it is clear now: India has lost the stalemate.

"Any rational observer would say this is not the time to nourish much hope on moving forward on substantive issues," said former Indian foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal. "But on our side they feel that vacuum is not in our favor and by not talking we would be giving up whatever little hope there is ... of stemming the rise of these radical forces and giving some backing to those who wish to normalize relations with India — especially Pakistani civil society."

But preventing Pakistani hardliners from playing the India card comes at a cost. The presumption that Qureshi will visit India in July to review the progress made by the two countries' foreign secretaries over the intervening months underscores the impression that India must woo Pakistan, even to merit a visit from its foreign minister. And it's far easier to make friendly noises now — when Indian-administered Kashmir enjoys a predictable winter lull in separatist protests — than it will be when Srinagar inevitably heats up for the summer.

At the last meeting between Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers last July, for instance, when Srinagar was rocked by bloody riots over the killing of civilian by Indian security forces, Qureshi sandbagged during meetings with Krishna in Islamabad. Then Qureshi undermined any possible gains at the post mortem press conference by equating a top Indian official with Hafiz Saeed — the Pakistani radical whom India believes masterminded the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and whose continued freedom and influence in Pakistan is a major impediment to better relations.

Indeed, if past talks are any indicator, nothing is likely to emerge from more dialogue. Though talking with Qureshi does grant Pakistan's democratically elected government an added stamp of legitimacy, in order to make progress India needs to negotiate with the real center of power in Islamabad — Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who heads the Pakistani army.

Moreover, Manmohan Singh's government is in a weakened position domestically, and recent revelations about the involvement of Hindu terror cells in the bombing of a "Friendship Express" train between Delhi and Lahore — in which 42 Pakistani citizens were killed — has undermined India's previous position of moral superiority.

"The jury is still out on these talks," said Indiana University professor Sumit Ganguly. "Any progress, will necessarily be extremely slow and incremental. The level of distrust in India is too great and the PM is too weak with the opposition in an uproar about multiple [corruption] scandals."


By caving into Pakistan's demands up front and allowing Kashmir and "all outstanding issues" back on the table, India has essentially admitted that it has nothing to negotiate with. The threat of war is an empty one (thankfully), and generous aid from an opportunistic China and a fearful United States renders India's economic clout meaningless.

"The stick we have we can't use, and the carrot that the Pakistanis want [Kashmir] we can't give them," said Sibal.

 

[ajtr]

Sharm-el-Sheikh like surrender in Thimphu​

February 14, 2011 14:15 IST

The Indian people need to know what the Manmohan Singh [ Images ] government expects to achieve from the dialogue from Pakistan. This obsession of normalising of relations with Pakistan, even if this is at the cost of India's [ Images ] territorial unity and integrity, is acquiring dangerous dimensions, says Sushant Sareen.


Cut through the claptrap of diplomatese and it is clear that the Manmohan Singh government has accepted all of Pakistan's demands and put the Composite Dialogue back on the rails; only the word 'composite' will be replaced by words like 'comprehensive', 'continuous', and 'constructive' to put a positive spin on what is clearly a capitulation by India.

Given the track record of the Manmohan Singh-led dispensation's policy on Pakistan, the complete about turn made by the Indian government on the commitment and assurance given to the Indian people that it would not get back to the Composite Dialogue framework until the perpetrators and plotters of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai were brought to justice, should come as no surprise.

Within weeks of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks [ Images ], it had become apparent that the Indian prime minister was desperate to restart the dialogue with Pakistan and was willing to do anything and pay any price to this end. The Sharm-el-Sheikh joint statement, in which he pulled out all stops to appease the Pakistanis, stands as testimony to the Indian government's feckless approach to putting an end to cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.

Even the insult heaped on the Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishna [ Images ], by his Pakistani counterpart in Islamabad [ Images ] last July did not dissuade the Indian prime minister to stop committing the folly of pursuing what is clearly a desultory peace track with Pakistan. In Islamabad, Krishna had practically conceded on everything that the Pakistanis wanted; the only sticking point was that India wanted to save some face by not committing to any firm time line for resolving issues like Kashmir [ Images ], Siachen etc.

Sensing the desperation in the Indian prime minister to start the dialogue, the Pakistanis decided to go for broke which led to the talks collapsing. But what the Pakistanis couldn't get in Islamabad has now been given to them on a platter in Thimphu.

Fearful of a fierce reaction from the Indian public opinion, the Indian external affairs ministry is chary of admitting that India has returned to the Composite Dialogue. It is therefore misleading the Indian public by peddling the nonsense of 'sequentially' discussing all issues that were part of the Composite Dialogue process, culminating in the visit of the Pakistani foreign minister.

Pray, what else was the Composite Dialogue process? In order to sweeten the bitter pill being administered to the Indian public, issues like Kashmir and Siachen will be come later in the 'sequencing' process, by which time it is hoped that a manufactured bonhomie will make Indian public opinion amenable to a return to the Composite Dialogue (sorry, the Indian foreign secretary doesn't like 'getting stuck in terminology' and prefers to call it a return to a 'constructive' dialogue in which 'no issue will be left out').

Regardless of the reasons for Manmohan Singh's obsessive quest for improving relations with Pakistan -- warding off American pressure (such 'pressure' is essentially only in the mind and one can take a lesson from how successfully a bankrupt Pakistan which is completely dependent on US aid shrugs it off), winning the Nobel Prize [ Images ] (isn't the prime ministership of India a big enough prize?), economic spin-off's of South Asian peace (it is not Pakistan that stops India's progress but the dysfunctional administration and horrendously corrupt and venal political system, epitomised by the Rajas, Radias and Kalmadis, over which he presides and protects?), to save Pakistan from its self-created jihadi monsters (if the Americans can't do this, India surely can't, nor for that matter, does Pakistan even want to be saved from them since they are Pakistan's biggest foreign exchange earner in the form of Western aid) -- the manner in which the so-called peace process is being pursued by the Indian PM is likely to reaffirm Pakistan's assessment of India as a country that just doesn't have the staying power to follow through with its stated policy.

The Pakistani perception of India had been once summed up by one of their Inter Services Intelligence chiefs -- Javed Nasir, the man was behind the Mumbai blasts in 1993 -- who said that 'you lick the Indians, they kick you; and if you kick the Indians, they lick you'. The government's Pakistan policy has only proved the Pakistani general correct.

After all, when after 26/11 the Pakistanis were begging India for a dialogue, the Indians refused; and now that the Pakistanis are kicking the Indians, the Manmohan Singh government is grovelling for a dialogue. No wonder, the Pakistanis never took Manmohan Singh seriously even after the 26/11 attacks.

They adopted a two pronged approach with the Indian PM: stonewall all demands for bringing the guilty of 26/11 attacks to justice and at the same time heap him with compliments -- visionary, statesman etc -- which will seduce him to forget the massacre of Indians by Pakistani terrorists and bring him scurrying back to the dialogue table.

But even the Pakistanis would have been surprised by the timing of the initiatives taken by India to get back to the talks table. The invitation to the Pakistan foreign secretary last year came against the backdrop of the London [ Images ] Conference on Afghanistan which had got the Pakistanis all excited and flush with misplaced triumphalism that their double game in Afghanistan had succeeded and that India's willingness to resume the dialogue was a sign of its weakness.

This year the talks took place a couple of days after the Pakistanis observed the Kashmir Solidarity day, a day on which jihadi terrorists like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba [ Images ] held rallies in the heart of every major city of Pakistan and openly threatening nuclear jihad on India.

For the Indian foreign secretary to call the Lashkar-e-Taiba chief, Hafiz Saeed [ Images ], 'an inconsequential person' smacks of an unfortunate lack of understanding of the reality in Pakistan. The fact of the matter is that Hafiz Saeed is the most important man in Pakistan, and his power is comparable to that of the army chief. He has today become the symbol of that country and every institution of the Pakistani state -- the judiciary, the army, the political parties, and the media -- go out of their way to protect and defend him. His significance can be gauged by the fact that even the Pakistan army [ Images ] is afraid of acting against him.

But it is not just the actions of Hafiz Saeed which the Manmohan Singh government wishes to turn a blind eye; in order to create a conducive climate for the dialogue, the Indian foreign secretary has been desperately brushing under the carpet the stream of vitriol pouring out from the Pakistani foreign office over the last few months.

Surely, the Pakistani foreign office must be touched by the enormous understanding that the Indian foreign secretary has shown for their compulsion to bad-mouth India. Interestingly, even as the foreign secretary says that it would be unrealistic to expect her Pakistani counterpart to criticise his spokesman or his foreign minister, she was most ready to accept the Pakistani foreign secretary's assurance that "the Pakistan army was on board to take these talks forward".

Worse, this was offered to the Indian media as something that would lend weight to the dialogue between the two countries. Did she actually expect her Pakistani counterpart to say that the Pakistan army was not on board? Nor did she bother to explain why, if the Pakistan army is so keen on talks, the entire infrastructure of terrorism directed against India has been reactivated by them.

Even if we ignore all these inconvenient facts, surely the people of India need to know what action has been taken by the Pakistani authorities against the patrons of the 26/11 attacks. What has happened in the last six months that India feels that Pakistan has done enough to warrant a return to the Composite Dialogue?

If anything, reports in the Pakistani press have revealed that the Pakistanis have warned India that the accused standing trial in Pakistan for their involvement in the 26/11 attacks are going to be released by the Pakistani courts if permission is not given to the judicial commission formed by Pakistan to examine Indian officials who investigated the 26/11 attacks.

The Indian people also need to know what the Manmohan Singh government expects to achieve from the dialogue from Pakistan. Stories doing the rounds in New Delhi [ Images ] hint at a compromise on the issue of Siachen. If there is an iota of truth in these stories then this obsession of normalising of relations with Pakistan, even if this is at the cost of India's territorial unity and integrity, is acquiring dangerous dimensions.

While peace and friendship are entirely desirable objectives, they are not an end in themselves. The Indian people need to be informed as to what we hope to achieve from peace and normalisation with Pakistan and whether the price that is being demanded off India in terms of a compromise in its core national interest, self-respect and dignity is worth it.

As things stand, if the current dispensation doesn't give up its non-serious and cavalier approach to issues of vital national security, then it is only a matter of time that another 26/11 type of attack is repeated in India. And going by the namby-pamby approach of this government, it should be clear that all the talk of India being forced to retaliate in the event of another major terrorist attack is nothing but an empty boast.

As long as this government is in power, the terrorists and their sponsors know that India will retaliate only by threatening to retaliate.

 

[ajtr]

Indo-Pak thaw helps Rahat avoid arrest​

NEW DELHI: Indian authorities on Monday dropped their plan to arrest Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Pakistani singing icon and Bollywood's blockbuster voice, after sustained diplomatic pressure from Pakistan on the external affairs ministry.

The decision not to arrest the singer was influenced by the fresh peace process between India and Pakistan which started only a week ago.

Rahat and his nephew Maroof Ali were freed after 24 hours of questioning by investigators from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), but their passports have been retained.

"He will appear again for questioning and will remain in the country until investigations are complete," said R K Sharma, additional director-general of DRI. He clarified that no case had been registered againt Rahat yet. "Only after investigations, relevant provisions of Customs Act and FEMA rules will be invoked against them," he said.

Rahat and Maroof were caught carrying over $142,600 (Rs 64 lakh) at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday night.

Both the Customs Act and FEMA have provisions for arrest that could certainly have been invoked against an Indian caught in the same circumstance as Rahat. But with Pakistan seeking to turn his detention into a test case of India's desire for revival of dialogue, Rahat and others detained with him may get away by paying penalty provided for under the relevant laws.

In Mumbai, DRI sleuths raided the event management company responsible for Rahat's musical events and some hawala dealers believed to have exchanged dollars for him illegally. Chitresh Srivastava, who runs this company, has been summoned for questioning after officials found Rs 51 lakh in cash in his possession.

Pakistan government got into overdrive on Monday morning with foreign secretary Salman Bashir calling in Sharat Sabharwal, Indian high commissioner in Islamabad, asking for the immediate release of the singer.

Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik called the Pakistan high commissioner here to ask for more action. The Pakistan high commission formed a task force to follow events but despite their best efforts, they failed to get access to the singer who was kept in detention. According to the rules, they could have asked for access if he had been formally arrested. Malik in turn rang up Vivek Katju, acting foreign secretary, asking for Rahat's release.

Within the Indian foreign policy establishment, the general feeling was that the high profile singer could be questioned without having to be kept in detention. At risk would be the PM's latest effort to mend fences with Pakistan, because Rahat is not only one of Bollywood's most popular singers, in many ways, he is also the voice of all the attempts to foster India-Pakistan peace.

The duo was detained at IGI airport on Sunday evening and later brought to DRI office at CGO complex in the capital. The questioning continued overnight. Sources said Rahat agreed to pay a spot penalty and appear for interrogation whenever summoned by DRI officials relating to the case.

Rahat and his aide were found in illegal possession of $50,000 in their check in baggage and Maroof had an additional $24,000 in hand baggage along with two bank drafts totaling $18,000. Sources said there were several counts under which Rahat could be booked. Under the Customs Act, a penalty of up to five times of the amount seized on a person carrying illegal foreign exchange can be imposed and under FEMA, there is a penalty provision of upto three times. In this case, a penalty under both the Customs Act and FEMA can be imposed.

Under section 132 & 135 of the Customs Act and Section 3 and 4 of FEMA, any individual illegally acquiring or carrying foreign exchange beyond the permissible limit — $5,000 in cash per person and bank papers not exceeding $5,000 — can be arrested in addition to a penalty. In this case, a senior Customs official said, had it been an Indian of any stature, arrest was inescapable.

Sources said Rahat told his interrogators that he had carried lesser amounts of foreign exchange on previous occasions too, but managed to evade detention.

For Pakistan, reeling under the diplomatic difficulties caused by the arrest of a US diplomat on a murder charge, events like this involving iconic Pakistani figures can send shockwaves through their system. In earlier days, ghazal singer Ghulam Ali has been under the scanner a number of times, but his popularity is nowhere close to what Rahat enjoys in India.

Read more: Indo-Pak thaw helps Rahat avoid arrest - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...-arrest/articleshow/7498320.cms#ixzz1DztSxA6T

 

[ajtr]

Indian judges use Urdu poem to reason with Pak​

A Vaidyanathan, Updated: March 14, 2011 20:00 IST

New Delhi: Two judges of the Indian Supreme Court invoked the words of a Pakistani poet today, while asking Pakistan to release an Indian who has spent 27 years in prison.

Gopal Dass was arrested by Pak Border Security Forces in 1984 when he crossed into Pak border.

Quoting a couplet by Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra said, "Qafas udaas hai yaaron sabaa se kuch to kaho kaheen to beher-e-khuda aaj zikr-e-yaar chale". (My love makes me blue, I hear my beloved's mention somewhere... Is there some God's creation that can bring her to me...)

The judges said that while they cannot direct Pakistan to see Gopal Dass free, they hope their request will merit some review.

 

[ajtr]

Indian delegation visits: 'A visa-free South Asia zone'​

By Mahnoor Sherazee

KARACHI:
An Indian delegation has come to Karachi with a vision of "an economically formidable South Asia, with strong trade, economic and social ties that could translate into a visa-free zone similar to the European Union".
"Intellectuals can analyse and describe the world, but the youth has the power to change it," said Dr Bhalchandra Mungekar.
On Friday, the delegation spoke to students, teachers and journalists at the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology and later at the press club.
Mungekar, who is also a former member of the Planning Commission, promised he would take up visas on arrival for Pakistani students as soon as he returned.
He said problems such as unemployment and poverty could be dealt with by cuts in the defence budget on both sides. "Some strong global forces have a geo-political interest vested in South Asia and do not want peace here," he said, adding that is why they "keeping selling F-16s" to the nuclear powers.
Former member of Indian parliament and editor-in-chief of Nai Dunia Weekly Shahid Siddiqui said, "We [India and Pakistan] are certainly two sovereign countries, however, part of this undeniable reality is that we are one people."
However, the real surprise — and perhaps a sneak peek into the mindset of some students — was when a member of the audience commented that he had probably learnt nothing from the talk. He said he found himself wondering whether coming to the event was a "waste of time".
Another young man seemed unnecessarily defensive in his rebuttal to Siddiqui, saying it was Pakistan's decision whether or not the people "permitted the political or military governments to come into power".
The comments were followed by an uncomfortable silence that was replaced by hushed murmurs.
However, the chairperson for the Pakistan Institute of Labour and Research, Karamat Ali, helped to bring the event back on track, saying, "that if someone did not make a decision to change and improve ties [with India] after leaving this talk, then they have truly wasted their time".
Speaking later in the evening at the press club, journalist Kuldip Nayyar re-emphasised that there was "no alternative to dialogue and repeated small initiatives".
He stressed that people on both sides of the border need to be more tolerant of other faiths. "The integrity and prosperity of India is dependent on the integrity and prosperity of Pakistan and vice versa," he said. Reiterating the vision of 'one South Asian market', Nayyar said mixing religion with politics and matters of the state needs to end.
The delegation also called on Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah at CM House.
Nayyar pointed out that the civil society was struggling for peace. He said that the Aman ki Asha campaign started with just a dozen people but now it had tens of thousands of supporters.
Indian delegation discusses peace
Dr Bhalchandra Mungekar Former member of the Planning Commission
Intellectuals can analyse and describe the world, but youth has the power to change it
Shahid Siddiqui Former member of Indian parliament
We [India and Pakistan] are certainly two sovereign countries but we are also one people
Kuldip Nayyar Veteran journalist
Many Kashmirs would come and go, but till the core issue of mistrust is not rooted out of the two nations, the problems would not end.
With additional input from APP
Published in The Express Tribune, March 19th, 2011.

 

[ajtr]

India's prosperity depends on Pakistan, says Nayyar​

KARACHI: Veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar said that media in Pakistan and India could play an important role in improving relations between the two countries.

He expressed these views while addressing a reception hosted by the Karachi Press Club (KPC) in honour of a nine-member Indian peace delegation headed by him here on Friday.

He said: "There is a mistrust in the minds of people of both countries. The situation can not be improved until this mistrust is removed." He stressed the need to rewrite the history books in India and Pakistan so as to mitigate the hatred between the two countries.

Nayyar said, "Indeed people of Pakistan and India have soft corners among their hearts for each others but some powers, who do not want peace in the subcontinent, create hurdles to keep them away from each other. The integrity and prosperity of India depends on the integrity and prosperity of Pakistan." He recalled that at the time of partition, over one million people were killed and 20 million others were displaced on both sides of the borders. "At that time I thought that we would not let any one to shed blood in the name of religion but I felt ashamed when later massacres were reported," Nayyar said.

"Every year on the night between August 14-15, we have been lighting candles at the Attari-Wagah border for 19 years in a hope of a long lasting friendship between the two countries," he said. Another senior journalist Jatin Desai praised the atmosphere and the democratic history of KPC in his speech. He shed light on steps taken to resolve the controversial issues between Pakistan and India and stressed the need to take some solid measure to resolve the issues of fishermen and civilian prisoners in both sides of border.

He said that Indian Home Secretary and Pakistan Interior Ministry officials are going to meet on March 28th to discuss bilateral issues. "We should ask both the governments to include those issues in the agenda on a priority basis," he said.

A former member of the Indian Parliament Shahid Siddiqui said on the occasion that some global forces did not want to see improving relations between the two countries for their economic interests. He added that India is the largest buyer of weapons from the Western world. KPC President Tahir Hassan Khan, Prof Luxumy Parshad, Pakistan Institute of Labur Education and Research (PILER)'s CEO Karamat Ali were also present on the occasion. asad farooq

 

[Tomcat]

kuldip is kuku can any one call the doctor please if he likes pakistan soooo much he should rather go and stay there and get himself a pakistani citizen ship card

 

[mayfair]

kuldip is kuku can any one call the doctor please if he likes pakistan soooo much he should rather go and stay there and get himself a pakistani citizen ship card

And give up his stature as the resident uber-WKK? Pigs will fly without wings before that.

 

[nitesh]

worth full read, but this line is the most important one
http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/op-ed/starting-afresh-with-pakistan/265314.html
Starting afresh with Pakistan

India cannot and should not attempt to make Pakistan either stable or prosperous.

 

[nitesh]

why these aha moments are happening to them now:

http://thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=43520&Cat=9

Historically we fooled ourselves by referring to the disgraceful and humiliating defeats of 1965, 1971 and Kargil as glorious victories.

 

[indiandude123]

Refresh button on India fears

Addis Ababa, May 23: The terror assault on the strategic Mehran defence facility near Karachi has spurred Indian concerns on the consequences of "internally incoherent Pakistan" and prodded it into an urgent security review.

"Information on the attack is still sketchy but we will have to sit down and analyse it in depth and draw our own lessons and tell our people what needs to be done," official sources said today, even as the audacious killer raid in Karachi unfolded.

Coming quick on the heels of Osama bin Laden's discovery — and killing — by US Navy SEALs in Abbottabad earlier this month, the Karachi attack has pushed the refresh button on Indian worries over the deteriorating security scenario in the neighbourhood.

"There is a pattern to these attacks and they are clearly part of an expanding offensive, mainly against those agencies seen to be fighting the Taliban and allied terror outfits," the sources said. "We run risks as Pakistan loses internal coherence and we have to be alive to the threats we face."

It is well possible that a good part of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's attention — and of his foreign and security affairs establishment — will be riveted on Pakistan as he embarks on African summit in Ethiopia and Tanzania over this week.

Singh arrived in the high and hill-ringed Ethiopian capital with the Karachi terror strike still flaming off news television. While he co-chairs the second India-Africa Forum Summit and interacts with a range of African leaders to push India's engagement with the "continent of new opportunity", his team will, doubtless, keep an eye peeled on events closer home.

Sources indicated to The Telegraph that the Prime Minister's camp office is in "minute-to-minute" touch with the latest eruption in Pakistan. The Karachi attack, they said, could carry immediate and mid to long-term implications for India.

For one, the raid has kindled disconcerting memories of the Mumbai nightmare and could force a review of India's coastline vigilance mechanisms put in place after 26/11. Sources said India's sea-line security was "much better" than prior to the Mumbai attack, but conceded that the new measures "may be patchy in parts and in constant need of upgradation which we do all the time".

But India's anxieties go well beyond the ramifications of the Karachi attack and are increasingly hovering on fears of the destabilisation of nuclear Pakistan by forces playing havoc on the street and, very possibly, in the Pakistani establishment.

India — and countries of the West, including the US —have long suspected, and often alleged that elements of the Pakistani ISI and the military are either hand-in-glove with terror outfits or winking at their activities in the region. The larger Indian apprehension, the sources explained, had to be understood in that context.

"Terror attacks in Pakistan per se may or may not post an immediate threat to us," a source said. "But the consequences of their activities on the stability of Pakistan itself is of serious import."

New Delhi's perception —based on real-time inputs from Pakistan — is that the Taliban are in a position now to mount "highly sophisticated and organised" attacks, such as the one they believe the Mehran raid to be.

"Parts of the Taliban are virtually at war with those they think are taking them on in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mehran is a very sensitive defence facility; apart from Pakistani defence personnel from all three wings of the armed forces, there probably are a good number of Americans, Chinese and Turks there too for logistical and other purposes," the source said to underscore the gravity of the attack.

Raising concerns over reports of Pakistan's intensified nuclear weapons programme, the sources said: "That worries us, and it worries us because there are concerns about the safety of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. Who guards the guardians? Do we trust them? As Pakistan loses internal coherence, our threat perception goes higher and it is genuine."

They wouldn't rush into any hasty speculation on Pakistani nuclear weapons falling into "maverick hands", but they did underline India's stated position on a possible nuclear attack in cold and measured tones: "There will be an assured massive retaliation in that event," the source said.

"That should be clear, that is what a credible nuclear deterrence means. There are no intermediate choices about that."


The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Frontpage | Refresh button on India fears

 

[Parthy]

India, Pakistan To Talk Siachen. For The 12th Time.

This statement from the Indian MoD today sums it up just fine: The twelfth round of Defence Secretary level talks between India and Pakistan on Siachen will be held in New Delhi on the 30th and 31st of May 2011.

The Indian delegation will be led by the Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar. The other members of the team include Special Secretary RK Mathur, Indian Army director general military ops Lt Gen AM Verma and India's Surveyor General S Subha Rao.

The Pakistan delegation [an all General unit!] will be led by Defence Secretary Lt Gen (Retd.) Syed Ather Ali. The other members include Maj Gen Ashfaq Nadeem Ahmed, Maj Gen Munwar Ahmed Solehri and Maj Gen (Retd.) Mir Haider Ali Khan.

The Defence Secretary level talks between the two countries to resolve the Siachen issue date back to 1985. The decision to hold talks followed discussions between Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Pakistan President Gen Zia-ul-Haq in Oman and New Delhi. The talks became a part of the composite dialogue with Pakistan, on all issues including Kashmir, from the eighth round of talks in August 2004 in New Delhi.

The Siachen issue is historical in nature. The Cease Fire Line (CFL) and the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu & Kashmir were delineated by the Karachi Agreement 1949 and the Shimla Agreement 1972 respectively up to point NJ 9842. The area beyond this point has remained un-delineated. This has led to different interpretations. The Karachi Agreement describes the CFL up to point NJ 9842 and mentions that 'it thereafter lies northwards towards the glaciers'. Similarly the Shimla Agreement is also silent on the delineation beyond NJ 9842. Pakistan claims that the line joins NJ 9842 with the Karakoram Pass, which is North-West of NJ 9842. The Indian position is that the line runs towards the glaciers along the watersheds formed by the Saltoro Range as per the internationally accepted principle of border delineation.


--Livefist

 

[Falcon]

India rebuffs Pak's "unwarranted" attempt to raise Kashmir at UN

India has rebuffed as "unwarranted and irrelevant" a Pakistani attempt to raise the Kashmir issue during a debate in the Special Political and Decolonisation Committee of the United Nations.

The Pakistani reference to "the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir (that) is unwarranted and completely irrelevant to the work of this Committee," Indian representative R. Ravindra, first secretary at India's UN mission, said exercising his right of reply.

"I would like to remind the distinguished representative of Pakistan that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India," he said during the debate on Tuesday.

"The Indian constitution guarantees the fundamental rights to all its citizens. The people of Jammu and Kashmir have expressed their free will by participating in free and fair elections held at regular intervals," Ravindra said.

Earlier, raising New Delhi's hackles, Tahir Hussain Andrabi, counsellor at Pakistan's Permanent Mission to the UN, sought a United Nations-led plebiscite to determine the will of the Kashmiri people saying Jammu and Kashmir has never been an "integral part" of India.

"Jammu and Kashmir is neither an integral part of India, nor has it ever been so," he said.

"In South Asia, the inalienable right to self-determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir had been recognised by a number of security council resolutions. Indeed, the UN decolonisation agenda would be incomplete without the resolution of the dispute," the Pakistani delegate said.

He said that Pakistan was committed to finding a peaceful resolution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, which would lead to "durable peace and stability" in South Asia.

LINK: India rebuffs Pak's "unwarranted" attempt to raise Kashmir at UN - Hindustan Times

 

[Galaxy]

Pak instability worries India


India is getting more worried about the instability in Pakistan in the backdrop of a serious face-off between the civilian leadership led by President Asif Ali Zardari and the Pakistan Army, but its own assessment is that the Army will at best try to put its own political nominees in place and not really stage a coup.

Highly-placed official sources see three clear developments in Pakistan after Mansoor Ijaz, a Pakistani-American businessman, leaked a memo purportedly committing Islamabad to revamp its national security set-up in exchange for US support to prevent a coup by the Army after America's raids on May 2 that killed Osama bin Laden. The memo, Ijaz claimed, was passed on to US Admiral Mike Mullen through an intermediary at the instance of a civilian leader, whom he did not name.

One, the Director General, Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan, was recently sent to London to speak with Ijaz and Army Chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani seems to be reasonably certain now about the facts relating to the memo. But Zardari can still wriggle out of this situation since he is not directly linked to the memo. Two, the Army is clearly propping up cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan as an alternative civilian face, with the support of the Jamaat and the breakaway factions of former President Parvez Musharraf. Three, a coup may be the crudest way to dislodge the current regime. So, replacing it with an alternative face is the likely option, but even this can take long since Nawaz Sharif is strong in Punjab and the Pakistan People's Party in Punjab, Sindh and the Frontier.

"Net, net, it is instability. We are dealing with an impossible neighbour," said the official, who did not wish to be quoted, admitting that the worsening situation did worry New Delhi. "But, we have lived with it and dealt with it,: the official added. There have been worse such situations, that too for long periods, in the past. The closest New Delhi came to "doing well" in its relationship with Islamabad was during Musharraf's regime.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had only recently said that Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is a man of peace and had the Army by its side. The officials admit that the situation has changed dramatically over the few days and New Delhi is no longer dealing with an organised Pakistan. "The country is stuck in its own complications again," the official said.

India will continue talks with the government of the day in Pakistan, the officials said.

"There have been good progress in the peace talks with Islamabad. They recently granted the Most Favoured Nation status to India and also returned the chopper which had entered its airspace," the official pointed out as positive developments and progress on bilateral relations in the recent past.

The officials said in the last two-three months, the Pakistan Army has simultaneously hardened its stance vis-à-vis Afghanistan. There has been no action or sanctions on terror outfits working on Afghanistan along the Pakistan side of Afghanistan. "Pakistan never says it in public now," the official added.

Post-memogate, Pak instability worries India - Indian Express

 

[SNB]

I have read a myriad of reasons on this thread for India to clamp down on Pakistani terrorist attacks through diplomatic, means, what i fail to understand is why India still trades with Pakistan , if the Pakistanis won't stop cross border terrorism ( which its been proven they won't) why not hit them where it hurts , in their economy , unlike India the Pakistani economy weak and fraught with mismanagement and corruption (which is huge even when you compare to corruption in India).
I say close the borders not only to terrorists but to Pakistani goods and services , close the airspace to Pakistani civil aviation , close contact between Pakistani and Indian civilian and cultural exchanges, the economy of India will take a small hit, but the impact on Pakistani economy would be huge , less revenue mean less funds available for training terrorist and less for military spending, and civilian sector. Its time India went all out and looked to its own economic and security interests.

 

[ajtr]

if pakistan shares same guage as india may be all other common wealth contries do have the same syatem.why cant our govt use our advantage and do business?

Pakistan always seeks peace with india but whenever some terror attack occurs in india its govt wrongly blames pakistan and act childish by withdrawing from talks.What if some people die in terror attack?even in pakistan people die interror attack prepetrated by RAW but pakistani govt dont act childish as indians do and it never stops the composite talks due to terror attacks.

 

[agentperry]

Pakistan always seeks peace with india but whenever some terror attack occurs in india its govt wrongly blames pakistan and act childish by withdrawing from talks.What if some people die in terror attack?even in pakistan people die interror attack prepetrated by RAW but pakistani govt dont act childish as indians do and it never stops the composite talks due to terror attacks.

only pakistanis are calling it RAWs act. rest of the world believes the intercepts of the call made between handlers and terrorists.
moreover pakistani media had reached out to the native village of kasab, vain in his village after sentencing of kasab was also telecasted. is RAW so able and powerful to establish a village with population in the middle of pakistan which cry, anger and cheer on the direction of RAW.
come on sir, its a real world we live in

 

[Bangalorean]

ajtr, when will you get tired of these childish games!!!

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Pakistan always seeks peace with india but whenever some terror attack occurs in india its govt wrongly blames pakistan

Well they have been seeking peace since 1948 even before, there have been proof of there progress been seen during 48,65,71,99 and still on with irregular warfare..

 

[maomao]

Pakistan always seeks peace with india but whenever some terror attack occurs in india its govt wrongly blames pakistan and act childish by withdrawing from talks.What if some people die in terror attack?even in pakistan people die interror attack prepetrated by RAW but pakistani govt dont act childish as indians do and it never stops the composite talks due to terror attacks.

Yeah right!

According to you, India should take a cue from pakis, as pakis don't blame India if Taliban (the creation of pakistan) Kills pakis.....Nice logic!! Your straw-man arguments never cease amaze me!!

No doubt, pakis and their fellow pious Islamists are considered to be the most delusional baboons on the planet, that too living in Denial and false sense of self-imposed grandeur!