COULD BIN LADEN KILLING POISON INDIA-PAKISTAN TALKS?
India RealTime, May 2, 2011
One of the big questions in South Asia after the killing of Osama bin Laden in a compound in Abbottabad outside Islamabad is how it will affect the early steps toward peace that India and Pakistan have been taking lately.
There are a few bleak possibilities. It could potentially poison the process by reinforcing the narrative of Pakistan as a terrorist sanctuary and make it difficult – politically and practically – for Indian officials to make a deal with their neighbors. Pakistan has said consistently that it was unaware of the al Qaeda leader’s whereabouts, yet he was living a few miles from a Pakistani military academy.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made striving for peace with Pakistan a top priority of his administration, but hawks in India will ask: if bin Laden could evade capture in a highly populated Pakistani city and in a mansion much larger than nearby houses, then what hope is there really of getting Islamabad to track down more shadowy elements of Lashkar-e-Taiba and other militant groups India wants to see punished.
The hawks will also ask: if the U.S. didn’t trust Pakistan enough to give it prior warning of the assault on Mr. bin Laden’s compound – the story senior U.S. officials are telling – then why should Indian diplomats and military officials trust their Pakistani counterparts in peace talks?
(...) [artículo aquí]
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment