India said Pakistan did nothing on 26/11 Mumbai probe: WikiLeaks

New Delhi: Pakistan is “hypnotically obsessed” with India’s military and has done “damn near nothing” to prosecute suspects in the 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai, top Indian diplomats have told U.S. officials.

They also repeated their claims that the Pakistani Army was involved in the Mumbai siege.

The comments, made known through leaked U.S. documents published on Friday, contain a few major revelations about the overall relations between the two neighbours.

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said earlier this year that peace talks, which have been on hold since the 2008 siege, could not move ahead until Islamabad did more to dismantle Pakistan-based terrorist infrastructure that New Delhi says supports militants.

The talks “can’t just be switched on,” Ms. Rao told U.S. Senator John Kerry during a February visit to New Delhi, insisting Islamabad had not yet done enough to prove it was serious about terrorism. The comments were conveyed in cables sent by the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi to the State Department and obtained by WikiLeaks. They were posted on Friday on the Website of the British newspaper The Guardian.

Speaking to Mr. Kerry just before he flew to Islamabad for meetings with top Pakistani officials, Ms. Rao also predicted the Senator would be told there that India’s military doctrine was a continuing threat.

The Pakistani military is “hypnotically obsessed” with India’s military, Ms. Rao said according to the cable, which was marked “confidential.”

Pakistan wants to resume the dialogue process, but India says Islamabad has not done enough to punish the perpetrators of the Mumbai siege or ensure there will not be a repeat.

Shortly before the Kerry meeting, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram told visiting FBI Director Robert Mueller that Pakistan had “done damn near nothing” to prosecute the Mumbai suspects, according a cable.

While Pakistan has arrested seven people in connection with the attacks, and top officials insist it is bringing those behind militant attacks to justice, those trials have not yet properly begun.

Pakistani officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

In 2009, meanwhile, then-Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon told then-Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher: “Let’s not insult one another by telling a story that the Pakistan Army was not involved” in the Mumbai attacks.

The cable quoted Mr. Menon as saying that the Pakistani Army paid wages to members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based Islamist militant group believed to be behind the siege. “They’re either unwilling to take action, or incapable, or both; any way you look at it, they’re involved.”

In early 2009, Mr. Menon warned the U.S. ambassador that Pakistan’s military was gaining ground in Islamabad at the expense of civilian leaders. “The good guys are losing,” Mr. Menon said.