India Threatens to Sever Ties With Pakistan

Home Minister Says Pakistan Has Done Nothing to Assist India Since Mumbai

by Jason Ditz, January 12, 2009

In an interview today, Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram accused Pakistan of “doing nothing” to assist India since November’s Mumbai attacks and said if this doesn’t change his government plans to sever all business, transport and tourist links with Pakistan and “isolate it from the rest of the world.”

Though Minister Chidambaram did not indicate when such a move might be made he did say “we need cooperation soon.” The threat is likely to once again escalate tension between the two nations, at a time when the Indian government is claiming direct Pakistani government involvement in the Mumbai attacks and Pakistan has expressed growing concern about the Indian military presence along the border.

Chidambaram also referred to Pakistan as a “failing, but not yet a failed state” and rejected Pakistani Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani’s comments which suggested the Mumbai attacks were related to the treatment of Muslims in Kashmir.

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