VOA常速英语:Mumbai Terror Attacks Heighten Tensions Between India, Pakistan

音频下载[点击右键另存为]
The terror attacks in Mumbai have heightened tensions between India and Pakistan as Indian officials blame a Pakistan-based militant group for the attack. As Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi, the attacks could reverse the gains from a five-year peace process between South Asia's nuclear armed rivals.

Indian investigators say that a gunman captured during the attacks on Mumbai admits he was trained in a camp in Pakistan by the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group blamed for previous attacks in India.

In recent days, top Indian officials have blamed Pakistan-based terrorists for the well planned assault. About 10 to 15 heavily armed gunmen attacked different targets across India's business hub, killing and wounding hundreds of people.

Pakistan has denied any involvement by its state agencies and vowed to cooperate in the investigation.

A strategic analyst at New Delhi's Center for Policy Research, Bharat Karnad, says the terror attacks could strain the improving ties between the countries.  

But he says New Delhi is unlikely to do what it did following a deadly assault on its parliament by Pakistan-based militant groups in 2001 when it massed troops along its border, bringing the two countries to the brink of war.

"I doubt very much whether this government has the will to get into a punitive mode, and order any kind of military counteraction or something of the kind," he said. "That won't happen. But yes relations are in tatters for the moment and that will be the case for a while now."

Pakistan has already warned that if tensions with India escalate, it will have to move troops from its Afghan border to the Indian border.

Some domestic reports say that the Indian government is considering suspending the peace process that began in the aftermath of the 2001 standoff. 

Foreign policy experts say talks with Islamabad may be put on hold temporarily, but rule out any "overreaction" on New Delhi's part.

Former Indian foreign secretary, Lalit Mansingh, says New Delhi is unlikely to turn its back on "enormous progress" made in relations with Pakistan in recent years.

"Yes, there is a sense of disappointment that despite very categorical assurances by Pakistani leaders we have not seen the terror tap switched off as we had expected," Mansingh noted. "I think it is going to be taken up bilaterally with Pakistan and it is going to bet taken up through other friendly countries like the United States, Britain and other. But do we suspend normal links with Pakistan? I don't think so."

U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice is expected to discuss the terror attacks during a visit to India on Wednesday. 

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since their independence from Britain. India blames Pakistan-based groups for training and arming Islamic militants to conduct terror strikes in India and to foment a separatist insurgency in Indian Kashmir.