Narendra Modi's recast ties with Pakistan is risky: Pak daily

Islamabad, Sep 6: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "recast the terms of bilateral re-engagement" with Pakistan but the path is strewn with dangers, a Pakistan commentator warned on Sunday.

"In just a year, Modi's achieved something subtle but significant: he's injected urgency in the global view of India-Pakistan and he's recast the terms of bilateral re-engagement," the commentary in Dawn newspaper said.

"And Pakistan has played into his hands. Maybe Modi guessed Pakistan would insist on making Kashmir the core issue or maybe it's just our inability to think creatively.

"Either way it's pretty much a non-starter: the world isn't going to insist India talk about Kashmir. The world will though insist India and Pakistan talk, and soon," the commentary said.

"And of the two, of India and Pakistan, the only one making a realistic suggestion is Modi and his talk of focusing on terror."

But this was risky though, the Dawn commentary warned.

Modi perhaps feels that the world would in fact pressure Pakistan to do something about the anti-India militants on Pakistani soil, it said.

"But the world looks like it's still fairly sympathetic to the Pakistani approach of dealing with the anti-Pak(istan militants) first. In any case, the Afghan lot are ahead of the anti-India lot in terms of a global priority.

"At the end of the day, the world isn't going to get India's business done for it. That is something Modi will certainly have thought of. And this is where his strategy becomes risky."

Escalating tensions on the Jammu and Kashmir border may be local for India, it said, but this would only alarm the world "enough to in fact do something about it.

"An arsonist in Delhi poking Pakistan in the eye - does anyone need to spell out all that could go wrong?"

IANS