Pakistan, India seek to improve relationship strained by Mumbai attacks with high-level talks

Pakistan, India seek to rebuild trust with talks

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan and India sought to improve their strained relationship Thursday with high-level talks aimed at rebuilding trust that was fractured by the terrorist attacks that killed 166 people in the Indian city of Mumbai nearly two years ago.

But analysts expected little concrete progress from the visit by Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, who met Thursday with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Krishna is the most senior official to come to Pakistan since the November 2008 attacks, which India blames on Pakistan-based militants.

India has insisted that no real improvement in the relationship can come until Pakistan demonstrates its determination to crack down on the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba allegedly involved in the attacks.

Pakistan helped establish Lashkar-e-Taiba around 20 years ago to pressure India over the disputed territory of Kashmir. The government banned the group in 2002 following U.S. pressure, but many analysts believe it still maintains links.

Pakistan has bristled at criticism it is not doing enough, saying it needs more evidence from Indian investigators. The government has also pushed India to restart comprehensive talks on a range of issues, including Kashmir, that were suspended in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.

The atmosphere could become even more heated with claims published Wednesday by Indian Home Secretary G.K. Pillai that Pakistan’s most powerful intelligence agency orchestrated the attacks.

Pillai told the Indian Express newspaper that new information about the role of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency had emerged from the interrogation of David Coleman Headley, an American who pleaded guilty in the U.S. in March to being in on the planning of the attacks. He was subsequently questioned by Indian investigators.

Pakistani authorities did not immediately respond to the accusations, but the agency has previously denied any involvement in the Mumbai attacks.

Krishna, the external affairs minister, said upon his arrival in Islamabad on Wednesday that he would continue to push Pakistan “on our core concern of terrorism.” He cited conversations India’s home minister had with Pakistani officials last month about Headley’s interrogation.

The U.S. national security adviser, Jim Jones, also pressed Pakistan to do more to tackle Islamist militants during a visit to India.

“We want to see a more comprehensive program that addresses all aspects of terrorism because all of these groups we are finding out are linked,” said Jones in an interview with the CNN-IBN television news channel broadcast Thursday.

The U.S. has had difficulty persuading Pakistan to go after Afghan Taliban fighters in the country’s northwest who often launch cross-border attacks against NATO troops in Afghanistan. Many analysts believe Pakistan’s reluctance is driven by its desire to maintain historical links to the Taliban that could be useful once international forces leave Afghanistan.

“Pakistan must recognize that it is contrary to their own interests for the future in the stability of the region to continue to tolerate the existence of insurgents within their borders,” said Jones. “So, the first means of correcting that and as a first means of showing that Pakistan wants the same thing that we want, they have to make a tough decision to go after these terrorist organizations.”

The U.S. also would like to see improvement in the relationship between Pakistan and India, hoping that would allow Pakistan to move more troops from its eastern border with India to its northwestern border with Afghanistan.