Washington: Osama bin Laden`s killing in a US
military operation in Abbottabad could affect the course of
Indo-Pak ties, with India getting an opportunity to "more
energetically" demand extradition of LeT terrorists behind the
2008 Mumbai attacks and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, a
Congressional report has said.
"The circumstances of OBL`s (Osama bin Laden`s) death
could affect the course of relations between Pakistan and its
historic rival India," the Congressional Research Service
(CRS) said in its latest report on the implication of al-Qaeda
chief`s killing.
An independent research wing of the US Congress, CRS,
which prepares periodic reports for lawmakers, noted that
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called bin Laden`s killing "a
significant step forward" and expressed hope that it would
represent a decisive blow to al-Qaeda and other terrorist
groups.
It said the Indian External Affairs Ministry hailed the
"historic development and victorious milestone in the global
war against forces of terrorism."
India`s Foreign and Home Ministers both took the
opportunity to focus on the new evidence that terrorists find
sanctuary in Pakistan, and concerns were raised that reprisal
attacks could come in Kashmir, CRS said.
"Still, most analysts do not foresee the development
as derailing New Delhi`s recent decision to reengage in a
robust peace dialogue with Pakistan, even if such dialogue is
made more complicated by May 1`s events," it said.
At the same time, however, there may be some apprehension
in New Delhi that the development could hasten a US withdrawal
from Afghanistan in ways that could be harmful to India`s
foreign policy interests, it said.
India is "averse" to seeing a Kabul government too
friendly with Islamabad in the future and has a keen interest
in precluding the resurgence of Islamist extremist groups in
Afghanistan, which it fears could be the case if the Pakistani
military has excessive influence on the anti-Taliban
campaign`s endgame, the report said.
"New Delhi also sees the discovery of OBL in Pakistan as
an opportunity to more energetically press its demands that
Islamabad extradite the alleged perpetrators of the 2008
Mumbai terrorist attack, Lashkar-e-Taiba figures believed to
be in Pakistan, as well as other most-wanted anti-India
terrorists such as Dawood Ibrahim," the report said.
PTI
