The World's Headache

摘要

The carnage in Mumbai stunned India and the world, and focused eyes on Pakistan. It is an "international migraine", said Madeleine Albright a former American secretary of state. "It has nuclear weapons, it has terrorism, extremists, corruption, it's very poor and it's in a location that's really, really important to us."rnThis week the senior civil servant in the Indian foreign ministry, Shiv Shankar Me-non, hurried to Washington to brief American leaders on a possible Pakistani link to the Mumbai attacks. India wants the world to compel Pakistan to uproot the terrorist groups operating from Pakistani territory, failing which it may be forced to retaliate militarily in some fashion to redeem national honour if not national security.rnLater in the week, the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, flew to Delhi and Islamabad, part of America's effort to restrain both sides from plunging into a wider conflict. India has cleared the Pakistani government of President Asif Zardari of direct involvement in the attacks. But it has demanded the extradition of 20 terrorists based in Pakistan. The list includes Dawood Ibrahim, an underworld don, who masterminded a terrorist onslaught in Mumbai in 1993 and is said to have taken refuge in Karachi.