The promise by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari that his country will not only provide help investigating the Mumbai attacks but also take “strong action” against any Pakistanis shown to have been involved strikes the right note in response to India’s demand that Islamabad hand over 20 people it says are implicated.
The offer, made to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who has been trying to ensure that the Mumbai attacks do not drive India and Pakistan into a new conflict — that is what the terrorists want — should satisfy Delhi. It will satisfy it all the more if Islamabad hands over any terrorist shown to have been involved. It should do so if evidence is forthcoming. Without it, President Zardari was right to refuse Delhi’s request. No government in the world would have done so without being convinced there was a case to answer. That aside, the Pakistani government nonetheless has been placed in an extraordinary difficult situation by the bombings. Any suggestion of jumping to India’s demands could dangerously destabilize it and the country. Quite apart from being used by militants to drain public loyalty to the political establishment, it could drive a wedge between the government and a military already concerned about President Zardari’s drive for warmer relations with India.
Nonetheless, Islamabad cannot dismiss India’s claims of some sort of Pakistani involvement out of hand, even if that has been the general reaction throughout the country. India’s claim that the one terrorist who was caught is Pakistani may yet turn out to be untrue (not because India is lying but because he is) but it cannot be ignored. In any event, Pakistan has nothing to be ashamed of. There is a world of difference between saying that it was involved in the Mumbai attacks and that individual Pakistanis were involved. No one is suggesting the former — at least no one who should be taken seriously. Indeed, despite the tensions, one of the most encouraging aspects of the matter is that most Indians firmly believe that neither the Pakistani government nor the military are implicated. Moreover, Pakistan is itself the target of its own homegrown terrorists. A knee-jerk refusal to believe allegations coming out of India may be understandable given the constant history of accusations and counteraccusations between the two countries but it is wrong and it misses a golden opportunity to forge better relations on the anvil of the Mumbai attacks. They are a historic opening to greater cooperation rather than greater antagonism between India and Pakistan, particularly between their mutually suspicious security forces. The two are targeted by extremists, the same extremists in many cases. They have everything to gain from closer relations, nothing to lose except excessive pride and the baggage of past antipathy.
They should learn a lesson from Spain and Morocco. Many of the terrorists in the 2004 Madrid train bombings which killed 191 people and injured 1,800 were Moroccan; only a couple of days ago another Moroccan, the 11th, was convicted and jailed for involvement in the attacks. But it did not lead to a breakdown in relations between Spain and Morocco. On the contrary, it has resulted in closer anti-terrorist cooperation — which makes all the more sense given that some of those involved in the Madrid bombings are thought to have been involved in the 2003 Casablanca bomb attack. Rather than sniping at each other and questioning each other’s intentions, India and Pakistan should use the Mumbai outrage to their joint advantage. Both have homegrown militants. The fact that these militants may also become cross-border militants shows a towering need for cooperation. The Indian and Pakistani governments seem to realize that. Whether the two powerful military establishments can wean themselves off 60 years of mutual suspicion and realize that that they now have a common enemy is another matter.
