'Pakistan doing just about enough to resume India talks'

Islamabad, Feb 25: Pakistan is looking to do just about enough for India to resume the dialogue process, said a Pakistani daily on Thursday.

An editorial "All For Show" in The Nation said that an anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Tuesday sentenced two Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) members to 10 years in prison, for raising funds for the banned outfit.

"With relations between India and Pakistan balanced on a knife's edge, one wonders if this crackdown is a strategy to improve relations between both as a form of appeasement to India, or a genuine effort to limit terrorism in Pakistan," it said.

The conviction of Kashif Siddique and Rashid Iqbal makes it potentially the first time that members of JeM have been convicted under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The daily said that the state wants to convey that dialogue resumption between India and Pakistan is a priority for the Nawaz Sharif government.

"The past few days has seen the government pick up its pace with regards to the Pathankot investigation. While the two convicted seemingly had nothing to do with the attacks themselves, Pakistan is looking to do just about enough for India to resume the dialogue process.

"It remains to be seen whether India will take this bait, however. This action is not likely to soften the Indian government's expectations of Pakistan."

The editorial said that it must be remembered that bringing JeM down "may help in the talks process, but benefits Pakistan more in the way of eliminating a prominent terrorist outfit".

"It is axiomatic that Pakistan cannot hope to eliminate terrorism from its soil and leave such groups unscathed," it said and added that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) looks likely to visit India to continue its investigation, but the journey will be futile if the investigators are denied entry into Pathankot airbase.

IANS