Author:
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 16, 2001
Terming the tensions between India
and Pakistan as the "most dangerous threat to world peace today", an influential
US think-tank has asked Washington to encourage Islamabad to cease its
support to Islamic militants in Kashmir and settle its differences with
New Delhi peacefully.
Cautioning the US against isolating
Pakistan in the process of improving its relation with India, the Rand
Corporation think-tank said: "The US should do whatever it can ... to prevent
Pakistan from drifting into an embittered fundamentalism."
"Pakistan should be encouraged to
cease its support to terrorists operating in South Asia and beyond... It
should be urged to peacefully resolve its differences with India over Kashmir,
to stop supporting militants operating there and to cease its politico-military
support to the Taliban in Afghanistan," it said in a project prepared for
US Air Force.
Low-level harassment of India, like
the Kargil conflict, represents "Pakistan's best chance - albeit not a
very good one- of gaining control of Kashmir. As long as the indigenous
insurgency is not fully suppressed, Pakistan can support it at a low cost
to itself while imposing a larger cost on India," it said.
In the past, India had adopted a
defensive stance towards this sort of harassment. A repetition of Kargil
incident could, however, lead New Delhi to consider a more forceful response
to solve the problem, said the report.
The report said Kashmir provided
a "rare point of unity" for Pakistan, and it employs "Islam-inspired guerrilla
warriors" who might otherwise cause trouble in Pakistan itself where Islamic
fundamentalism is gaining political influence."
In the context of India and Pakistan
acquiring nuclear capability, the report suggested it might be desirable
for the US to increase reconnaissance activities by sending additional
surveillance assets to the region.
It said an outbreak of war between
them would create high level of concern with respect to the safety of their
nuclear arsenal and the possibility of their use in the conflict.
The US military might be tasked
to provide these assets as well as operate them from the international
water and airspace or over the territory of combatants -- either with or,
in the extreme situation, without permission to do so, it said.
It also suggested that a single
US command may be given jurisdiction over India and Pakistan instead of
putting Pakistan under the central command and India under Commander-in-Chief,
Pacific.
The US objectives of maintaining
peace and enhancing stability in the sub-continent would require a delicate
balancing act, one key component of which would be military-to-military
engagement, it added.
(PTI)
