Thaindian News

Washington, May 5 (ANI): India is all set to gain as Washington’s approach to Islamabad is surely going to change after the US military killed Osama bin Laden at his hideaway in Abbotabad just a stone throw away from a Pakistani Army establishment.

President Barack Obama has vowed the US will keep working with Pakistan, which he called an partner in the fight against al Qaeda and its allies including the Taliban.

But with bin Laden’s death fueling doubts about the viability of the US-Pakistan relationship — and removing the original reason for American military involvement in Afghanistan - Washington’s primary focus may shift back to New Delhi as the region’s economic and political heavyweight.

“This will further encourage closer US-Indian collaboration, intelligence sharing and cooperation, and finding ways to work with India to address regional stability issues writ large,” said Karl Inderfurth, a former Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian affairs under the Clinton administration.

India has suffered major militant attacks including the 2008 Mumbai attack and it fears that a hasty US exit from Afghanistan could empower Pakistan and give free rein to extremist groups, the China Daily reports.

India also has been frustrated by what it sees as insufficient US pressure on Pakistan to share intelligence about militant groups operating in its territory. That pressure likely to sharpen after bin Laden was discovered living in a Pakistani military garrison town.

“Osama bin Laden’s death will not change the US prism for seeing Pakistan,” said George Perkovich, director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“It will make The US feel it has, or should have, more leverage to push Pakistani security establishment to go after terrorists (but) this is probably over-optimistic,” he said.

Dan Markey, a South Asia specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that both the United States and India should be cautious in their public pronouncements with neither likely to benefit from more friction with Pakistan. (ANI)