By Ashok K Mehta
Even after 29 days of the Mumbai carnage, the Government is shadow-boxing with Pakistan, unable to forge a face-saving strategy that will assuage the anger of the people, not impair its electoral prospects next year on the charge of being soft on terror, and most of all force Pakistan to act against cross-border terrorism. The challenge lies in preventing the next attack.
Since the attack on Parliament House on December 13, 2001, on five occasions Pakistan has given solemn commitments not to allow use of its soil, including Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, for attacks against India. Two of these assurances were extracted by the United States in 2002 from former President Pervez Musharraf; the second was secured by US Deputy Undersecretary of State Richard Armitage -- that Islamabad would end cross-border terrorism permanently, visibly, irreversibly and to the satisfaction of India. It was erroneously assumed that the Pakistani pledges of good behaviour were underwritten by the Americans. In September 2008, President Asif Ali Zardari's reaffirmation of these commitments to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York revived the post-Kabul 'strained' peace process. |