Mumbai terror attacks might derail Indo-Pak peace process

Reconciliation between India and Pakistan, it noted, has emerged as a basic tenet in the approaches to foreign policy of President-elect Barack Obama and the new leader of Central Command, Gen David H Petraeus.

No matter who turns out to be responsible for the Mumbai attacks, their scale and choice of international targets will make the agenda of the new US administration harder, it added.

The point is to persuade Pakistan to focus less of its military effort on India, and more on the militants in its lawless tribal regions who are ripping at the soul of Pakistan, it said.

A strategic pivot by Pakistan’s military away from a focus on India to an all-out effort against the Taliban and their al Qaeda associates, would serve to weaken militants who are fiercely battling US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, it is believed.

But attacks, as devastating as those in Mumbai whether ultimately traced to homegrown Indian militants or to others from abroad, or a combination seem likely to sour relations, fuel distrust and hamper, at least for now, America’s ambitions for reconciliation in the region, the Times said.

The early signs were that India, where state elections are scheduled, would take a tough stand and blame its neighbour, it added, quoting from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s address to the nation.

Singh, it commented, has in the past been “relatively moderate” but his tone in the address was harsh.

The prime minister did not name Pakistan. But everyone “certainly on Pakistani television news programmes Thursday night” knew that is what he meant, and that the long history of Pakistani-Indian finger-pointing had returned, the paper said.