26/11 torpoedoed hopes of improvement in Indo-Pak ties: US

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Dec 3 (PTI) As 10 LeT terrorists laid
siege to Mumbai in November 2008, the top US diplomat in
Islamabad told her government that the carnage by Pakistan-
based terrorists torpedoed any hope of improvement in
relationship between India and Pakistan.
In a cable to the State Department in Washington,
which was leaked by the whistleblower site WikiLeaks, the then
US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson wrote about the
Mumbai attacks and the reaction to the carnage in Pakistan.
"The Mumbai attacks likely torpedoed any prospect of
Indian CBMs on Kashmir in the immediate future," she wrote in
the cable dated November 28, when security forces ended the
three-day siege.
She said the decision to send ISI chief Gen Pasha to
India, however, is a good sign that both sides are trying to
prevent these horrific attacks from undermine all the progress
made on bilateral rapprochement.
The move to send Pasha to India was later vetoed by
the Pakistani Army.
"If the militant's plan was to force the Pakistani
Army to re-focus on its eastern border and eliminate any
chance (however slight) of moving forces from the Indian
border to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), then
their plan may have succeeded," Patterson said in the cable.
The US, which has charged the Wikileaks of indulging
in a criminal act by stealing and releasing these cables, has
neither confirmed nor denied the authenticity of these
documents.
Informing the reaction inside Pakistan on the Mumbai
terrorist attacks, Patterson said Pakistani media reacted
predictably with denials of Pakistani involvement and demands
for proof before accusations were made.
Dawn TV, echoing the print media, highlighted
statements issued by the President and the Prime Minister that
"both countries are victims and must join together to combat a
common enemy," and that "the two countries must not fall into
the trap of the militants," the cable said.
Zardari is reported to have told Singh that he
recognised he was the first to call him after the Marriott
hotel attack in Islamabad, it said.
Dawn reports officials as saying "the blame game must
not begin," but its own commentators say the blame game is
underway.
Local print media mostly reported the event in
straight stories with editorials condemning both the attacks
and Indian accusations.
Some speculated the attacks were meant to undermine
Zardari's outreach to India and juxtaposed the attacks against
modest progress in the Composite Dialogue meetings on counter
terrorism issues, the cable said. PTI