Pakistan Pressures West to Rein in India

Vows to end Afghan operations if India builds troops along border after Mumbai
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 30, 2008 8:34 AM CST
Pakistan Pressures West to Rein in India
Pakistani paramilitary troops keep guard at a road to ensure security in Karachi, today following fighting between ethnic and political gangs that left 16 people dead in the last two days.   (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

In a thinly veiled message to the US, Pakistan officials have threatened to withdraw troops fighting Islamists along Afghanistan if India builds up forces along the border it shares with Pakistan. Furious Indian officials have linked the deadly Mumbai terror operation to Pakistan. "If something happens on that front, the war on terror won't be our priority," a Pakistani senior security said ominously. "We'll take out everything from the western border."

His threat was clearly aimed at pressuring the US to temper India's response to the attacks, reports the Times of London. The US is faced with a dilemma of appeasing both nations, while India's vulnerable coalition government is under pressure to respond swiftly to the terror attacks in the run-up to the national elections in spring.
(More Mumbai stories.)

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