Reducing tensions between India and Pakistan is imperative to get Pakistan more focused on the fight against militants on its western border with Afghanistan, US special envoy Richard Holbrooke underscored on Wednesday.
He observed with satisfaction that the two nations did not overreact in the aftermath of November 2008 Mumbai attacks, which, he added, were aimed at straining the relations between the two countries. "The Indians did not play into their hands. The Indians restrained themselves. And the Pakistanis did not move troops to the border.
"But we have got to understand that to get the Pakistanis to focus on the west, we have to have a reduction in tensions between India and Pakistan" he told US Public Broadcasting Service channel.
The diplomat, who this week returned from his first South Asian visit to Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, argued that "this is the first time since the independence of Pakistan and India, over 60 years ago, that India, Pakistan, and the United States share a common threat from the terrorists."
Holbrooke expressed the "hope that India and Pakistan, who have faced off against each other and fought several wars in the last 60 years, are now going to find the common cause to reduce this threat by taking it head on.
"As everyone knows, the Pakistan army has been focused on India for decades. Most of us believe that they ought to reorient their attention much more to the west. But in order to do that, there has to be much more confidence between Pakistan and India," he emphasised. "The terrorist attack in Mumbai was conducted by very shrewd, ruthless murderers. The terrorists, who launched that attack, were trying to upset the improving relations between Pakistan and India," he added.