India and Pakistan share intel under CIA umberlla
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DAWN.COM | World | Pakistan, India in ?rare anti-terror cooperation?
NEW YORK: As the Pakistan army battles extremists inside the country, Pakistan and India have begun sharing intelligence on militants, with the prodding of Washington, the Wall Street Journal disclosed on Thursday.
The newspaper said 'in an arrangement that represents unprecedented cooperation between the two nuclear-armed South Asian nations, the intelligence sharing between two adversaries has begun with Washington's help'.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) arranged for Pakistan and India to share information on Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group widely blamed for last November's terrorist attack on Mumbai, as well as on Taliban commanders who are leading the insurgency against Pakistan's government, the newspaper claimed.
'Intelligence sharing on Mumbai has led to a somewhat more frequent exchange of information,' US and Pakistani officials said. India and Pakistan have shared 'a lot' of information with each other about the Mumbai attack, said an official at Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency.
He said the CIA was initially used as a conduit but the two countries now work directly with each other, while keeping the CIA in the loop.
The official cautioned, 'We're not going to tell them everything we know and they're not going to tell us everything they know. Nobody expects that to happen, but we're talking about (the attack). We weren't doing that in December.'
The Obama administration hopes the cooperation will get a lift from last week's Indian elections, in which the incumbent Congress Party won by a wide margin over a Hindu nationalist party traditionally more hostile to Pakistan.
The US is stressing to Indian and Pakistani leaders that they face a common threat in Pakistan-based militant groups. Washington hopes that when India sees the intelligence and evidence that Islamabad is seriously fighting the militants in some areas, it will ease its deployments against Pakistan, which in turn would prompt Islamabad to put even more focus on the battle at home.
'We have to satisfy the Mumbai question, and show India that the threat is abating,' a US official involved in developing Washington's South Asia strategy told the WSJ.
India and Pakistan traded military threats across their border in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, in which terrorists left more than 170 people dead. The CIA and US diplomats tried to ease the tension, urging Pakistan to crack down on the sources of the attack. Pakistan banned Lashkar and detained six people in connection with the attack, partially mollifying Indian outrage.
A US official told the WSJ, Washington isn't 'under any illusions' about the difficulty of erasing decades-old suspicions between India and Pakistan, but sees some progress.
US officials hope that an easing of tensions can allow India's Congress Party government, strengthened by its election victory, to resume peace talks with Pakistan over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. Some US officials believe Lashkar-e-Taiba orchestrated the assault specifically to undermine the peace process.
The Obama administration has been concerned that Lashkar could carry out a second strike on India in a bid to stoke a war. President Barack Obama came into office pledging to craft a regional solution to the instability in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The CIA and other intelligence agencies are stepping up efforts in the Pakistani tribal areas, tapping and tracking the location of the cellphones of Taliban commanders as well as taking pictures and collecting information in their training camps, according to a person familiar with the efforts.
The US shares this information with Pakistan, and sometimes with India, to reinforce the US argument that the Taliban threat to Pakistan is greater than the Indian threat.
The US also sometimes brings intelligence on Pakistan's efforts to combat militants to India's attention, with Pakistan's consent, this person said. Examples include showing Indian officials evidence of progress against militants in the Pakistani regions of Bajaur, Swat, and Buner.
The WSJ said: The government of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is hoping that Congress's victory can also provide the Indian government with the political cover to move one or two divisions away from the Pakistan border in coming months, according to an official briefed on the diplomacy.
But Indian officials say they aren't ready to do so. An Indian government official said New Delhi has documented an escalation of cross-border infiltrations by Pakistani militants into Kashmir.
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Their editorial talks a bit about this too
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect...wspaper/editorial/pakistanindia-relations-259
NEW YORK: As the Pakistan army battles extremists inside the country, Pakistan and India have begun sharing intelligence on militants, with the prodding of Washington, the Wall Street Journal disclosed on Thursday.
The newspaper said 'in an arrangement that represents unprecedented cooperation between the two nuclear-armed South Asian nations, the intelligence sharing between two adversaries has begun with Washington's help'.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) arranged for Pakistan and India to share information on Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group widely blamed for last November's terrorist attack on Mumbai, as well as on Taliban commanders who are leading the insurgency against Pakistan's government, the newspaper claimed.
'Intelligence sharing on Mumbai has led to a somewhat more frequent exchange of information,' US and Pakistani officials said. India and Pakistan have shared 'a lot' of information with each other about the Mumbai attack, said an official at Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency.
He said the CIA was initially used as a conduit but the two countries now work directly with each other, while keeping the CIA in the loop.
The official cautioned, 'We're not going to tell them everything we know and they're not going to tell us everything they know. Nobody expects that to happen, but we're talking about (the attack). We weren't doing that in December.'
The Obama administration hopes the cooperation will get a lift from last week's Indian elections, in which the incumbent Congress Party won by a wide margin over a Hindu nationalist party traditionally more hostile to Pakistan.
The US is stressing to Indian and Pakistani leaders that they face a common threat in Pakistan-based militant groups. Washington hopes that when India sees the intelligence and evidence that Islamabad is seriously fighting the militants in some areas, it will ease its deployments against Pakistan, which in turn would prompt Islamabad to put even more focus on the battle at home.
'We have to satisfy the Mumbai question, and show India that the threat is abating,' a US official involved in developing Washington's South Asia strategy told the WSJ.
India and Pakistan traded military threats across their border in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, in which terrorists left more than 170 people dead. The CIA and US diplomats tried to ease the tension, urging Pakistan to crack down on the sources of the attack. Pakistan banned Lashkar and detained six people in connection with the attack, partially mollifying Indian outrage.
A US official told the WSJ, Washington isn't 'under any illusions' about the difficulty of erasing decades-old suspicions between India and Pakistan, but sees some progress.
US officials hope that an easing of tensions can allow India's Congress Party government, strengthened by its election victory, to resume peace talks with Pakistan over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. Some US officials believe Lashkar-e-Taiba orchestrated the assault specifically to undermine the peace process.
The Obama administration has been concerned that Lashkar could carry out a second strike on India in a bid to stoke a war. President Barack Obama came into office pledging to craft a regional solution to the instability in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The CIA and other intelligence agencies are stepping up efforts in the Pakistani tribal areas, tapping and tracking the location of the cellphones of Taliban commanders as well as taking pictures and collecting information in their training camps, according to a person familiar with the efforts.
The US shares this information with Pakistan, and sometimes with India, to reinforce the US argument that the Taliban threat to Pakistan is greater than the Indian threat.
The US also sometimes brings intelligence on Pakistan's efforts to combat militants to India's attention, with Pakistan's consent, this person said. Examples include showing Indian officials evidence of progress against militants in the Pakistani regions of Bajaur, Swat, and Buner.
The WSJ said: The government of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is hoping that Congress's victory can also provide the Indian government with the political cover to move one or two divisions away from the Pakistan border in coming months, according to an official briefed on the diplomacy.
But Indian officials say they aren't ready to do so. An Indian government official said New Delhi has documented an escalation of cross-border infiltrations by Pakistani militants into Kashmir.
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Their editorial talks a bit about this too
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect...wspaper/editorial/pakistanindia-relations-259
Useless unless we expect RAW to betray her own operatives working close with AQ and Taliban to destabalise Pakistan.
India working with AQ and Taliban ? That's the first I've heard about it.
As for Indian influence with groups in Pakistan --There were comments from Musharraf about Baluchistan issue - and the dossier he published had Indian officials attending a conference in Europe about Baluchistan. That's the most specific allegation I've ever seen.
After that Rehman Malik has said about a "foreign hand" and that could as well refer to Afghan Taliban moving into NWFP. India absolutely hates the Taliban and mostly sees them as a Pak product (after Kandahar hijacking, the militants moved into NWFP and hence the suspicion of Pak involvement). This current statement, again by Rehman Malik, seems to imply that Indian hands are clean on Taliban.
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