Osama bin Laden's killing in a US military operation in Abbottabad could affect the course of Indo-Pak ties, with India getting an opportunity to 'more energetically' demand extradition of Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, a US Congressional report has said.
"The circumstances of OBL's death could affect the course of relations between Pakistan and its historic rival India," the Congressional Research Service said in its latest report on the implication of Al Qaeda chief's killing.
An independent research wing of the US Congress, CRS, which prepares periodic reports for lawmakers, noted that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called bin Laden's killing "a significant step forward" and expressed hope that it would represent a decisive blow to Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
It said the Indian external affairs ministry hailed the "historic development and victorious milestone in the global war against forces of terrorism."
India's foreign and home ministers both took the opportunity to focus on the new evidence that terrorists find sanctuary in Pakistan, and concerns were raised that reprisal attacks could come in Kashmir, CRS said.
"Still, most analysts do not foresee the development as derailing New Delhi's recent decision to reengage in a robust peace dialogue with Pakistan, even if such dialogue is made more complicated by May 1's events," it said.
At the same time, however, there may be some apprehension in New Delhi that the development could hasten a US withdrawal from Afghanistan in ways that could be harmful to India's foreign policy interests, it said.
India is "averse" to seeing a Kabul government too friendly with Islamabad in the future and has a keen interest in precluding the resurgence of Islamist extremist groups in Afghanistan, which it fears could be the case if the Pakistani military has excessive influence on the anti-Taliban campaign's endgame, the report said.
"New Delhi also sees the discovery of OBL in Pakistan as an opportunity to more energetically press its demands that Islamabad extradite the alleged perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack, Lashkar-e-Taiba figures believed to be in Pakistan, as well as other most-wanted anti-India terrorists such as Dawood Ibrahim," the report said.
