By Gurmukh Singh, IANS,
Toronto : Praising New Delhi for exercising caution in not pointing a finger at Islamabad for the Mumbai bombings, the Canadian media Thursday said India realises that Pakistan is already so unstable that any confrontation could push it over the brink.
India’s politicians are “uncharacteristically exercising restraint and refusing to speculate over who was behind the fourth major terrorist attack on Mumbai in eight years”, wrote the daily National Post.
“But the difference (in the Indian reaction) this time around may not be so much a new found sense of trust as it is fear South Asia could be plunged into a dangerous period of uncertainty and tension,” according to the daily.
The paper said Wednesday’s attacks couldn’t have come at a worse time for the South Asian region. Pakistan flirts with violent disintegration and economic collapse as regional alliances are being strained by the growing rift between Islamabad and Washington following the killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden “practically on the doorstep of Pakistan’s main military academy”.
At such a time, a confrontation with India over yet another terrorist attack may push Pakistan over the brink, the newspaper said.
“Given the current uncertainty within the Pakistan military and volatile situation inside Pakistan, Indian leaders may be loath to escalate tensions with Pakistan,” it quoted Lisa Curtis, a South Asia expert with Washington’s Heritage Foundation, as saying.
However, Wednesday’s bombings could complicate the newly started confidence building measures by the two countries.
Further, by stirring up old animosities, Pakistani terrorists might also buy themselves some relief from the pressure the US has been putting on Islamabad to step up its fight against jihadists, the paper said.
“One immediate outcome of Wednesday’s bombing is certain to be that the Pakistani military’s inclinations will be to stay focused on India rather than the militants, who maintain close ties to segments of the Pakistani armed forces and the intelligence service,” the paper quoted James Dorsey, a researcher at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute, as saying.
(Gurmukh Singh can be contacted at [email protected])