Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They
AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e
BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German
Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who
By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an
Navigation
Primary Navigation
Home
Singapore
Asia Pacific
World
Business
Entertainment
Sports
Technology
Top Stories
Most Popular
Secondary Navigation
Australia
China
India
Indonesia
Japan
Malaysia
Philippines
Thailand
Vietnam
Search
Search:
Pakistan, India ties chill after attacks
By CHRIS BRUMMITT,Associated Press Writer AP - 1 hour 15 minutes ago
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The Mumbai terror attacks threaten to chill improving ties between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan just as the West is trying to get Islamabad to focus on al-Qaida and Taliban close to the Afghan border.
India has not singled out Pakistan as being linked to the strikes, but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday said militants based outside his country carried them out.
That was widely understood in Pakistan to be an accusation of its involvement.
Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said Pakistan "should not be blamed like in the past."
"This will destroy all the goodwill we created together after years of bitterness," he told The Associated Press late Thursday. "I will say in very categoric terms that Pakistan is not involved in these gory incidents."
Deteriorating relations between Pakistan and India, which have fought three wars since 1947, would greatly complicate U.S. foreign policy in South Asia.
Incoming President-elect Barack Obama has said normalizing ties between the two countries will be a major plank of his broader campaign to stabilize Afghanistan and beat al-Qaida in the region.
"You can't cozy up to a country that is accusing you of complicity in terrorism," said Shaun Gregory, an expert on South Asian terrorism at the University of Bradford in Britain. "Any sign of Pakistani involvement would be extraordinarily damaging."
In 2001, militants fighting Indian-rule in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir attacked the parliament in New Delhi, helping push the countries to the brink of war a year later.
More recently, Indian accused Pakistan's intelligence services of helping Taliban militants bomb its embassy in the Afghan capital in July, killing 58 people.
Pakistani officials say there is no evidence to support the allegation.
The attack late Wednesday saw teams of gunmen attack at least 10 sites, including two luxury hotels, a railway station and a Jewish center, in the financial capital of Mumbai. More than 100 people were killed.
Relations between India and Pakistan have improved in recent years, helped by a reduction in the flow of militants into Kashmir, the divided and violence-torn territory at the core of their dispute.
Pakistan's new president, Asif Ali Zardari, declared over the weekend that India posed no threat to Pakistan and called for the heavily militarized border to be opened for trade.
In an address to the nation Thursday, the Indian prime minister said the group that carried out the attacks "was based outside the country" and warned its neighbors "that the use of their territory for launching attacks on us will not be tolerated."
Earlier, Indian navy spokesman Capt. Manohar Nambiar said navy officers had boarded a cargo vessel it suspected of ties to the attacks that had come to Mumbai from Karachi, Pakistan. He later said the ship was not linked in any way to the strikes.
Many analysts said the attacks were more likely to have been carried out by indigenous, Indian extremist groups blamed for a series of bombings this year than Pakistani-linked ones.
They also noted that India's government stood to benefit politically for hinting at the involvement of its old rival _ rather than admitting some of its own 145 million Muslims had become radicalized.
"It will always want to label this militancy as foreign rather than to accept it has its own problem," said Gregory, the South Asian terrorism expert. "That sells much more easily to the Indian public than admitting serious grievances within its Muslims."
Pakistan's foreign minister has said his country will cooperate in any investigation. He too warned against early speculation about the perpetrators.
"Let us not go in for knee-jerk reactions," said Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was in India for talks on a slow-moving South Asian peace process.
An Indian media report said a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attacks in e-mails to several media outlets. There was no way to verify that claim.
Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore, said he believed the terrorists were from India.
"The earlier generation of terrorist groups in India were mostly linked to Pakistan," he said. "But today we are seeing a dramatic change. They are almost all homegrown groups."
______
Associated Press Writers Lee Keath in Cairo, Egypt and Zarar Khan in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
Email Story
IM Story
Printable View
Blog This
Recommend this article
Average (0 votes)
Sign in to recommend this article »
Most Recommended Stories »
Related Articles: Asia Pacific
ASEAN head travels to protest-hit Thailand to 'clarify' summitAFP - 32 minutes ago
Court authorises euthanasia for first time in SKoreaAFP - 36 minutes ago
Army official: Mumbai operations almost overAP - 1 hour 12 minutes ago
Pakistan, India ties chill after attacksAP - 1 hour 16 minutes ago
StanChart says 2 Asia consumer bank execs to leaveReuters - 1 hour 22 minutes ago
Most Popular – Asia Pacific
Viewed
US clears Bank of America deal for Merrill Lynch
US president's mother 'doing very well' in hospital: Laura Bush
Love handles increase death risk: study
Obama vows 'help is on the way' for the economy
Michael Jackson strikes 'amicable' deal with Arab sheikh
View Complete List »
Search:
Home
Singapore
Asia Pacific
World
Business
Entertainment
Sports
Technology
Top Stories
Most Popular