Monday With McCain

Defeated US Presidential Candidate John McCain says India will attack Pakistan if it fails to act against those involved in the Mumbai raids.

McCain, who is on a two-day visit to Pakistan, outspokenly told a group of reporters in Pakistan's Lahore that Indian Premier Manmohan Singh was visibly angry about the killings and damage to property in the Mumbai terrorist attacks. “The democratic government of India is under pressure and it will be a matter of days after they have given the evidence to Pakistan to use the option of force if Islamabad fails to act against the terrorists,” Pakistan's Daily Times quoted him, as saying on Sunday.

The Arizona Senator stressed that if Pakistan does not do anything to find and arrest the 'bad guys', India will have no option but to use force. Questioned about what the United States would do in the event that India carries out such a threat, McCain said that Washington would not be able to do much, even as “privately I will try to dissuade India from doing so.” “We were angry after 9/11. This is India's 9/11. We cannot tell India not to act when that is what we did, asking the Taliban to hand over Osama Bin Laden to avoid a war and waging one when they refused to do so.” He noted that such an Indian attack could cause retaliation from Pakistan and that this is precisely the course of actions and reactions that those who attacked Mumbai were hoping for.

McCain said that Pakistan could respond to such an Indian attack, but reiterated that the threat to Islamabad on this score will be very real. The comments come after US and Indian intelligence reports suggested that the Mumbai attacks were carried out by the Pakistan-based Kashmiri militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Meanwhile, Islamabad continues to express doubt over involvement of Pakistani 'elements' in the incident. US and India have vowed to keep pressure on Islamabad over the Mumbai raids. Earlier US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice, during her meetings with Pakistani civilian and military leaders, made it clear that Pakistan needs to act effectively to bring the perpetrators to justice. She warned that the "US will act if Pakistan did not". She urged Islamabad to "follow evidence wherever it leads" and lend 'absolute' and 'transparent' cooperation to New Delhi in the probe into the Mumbai terror strikes. 10 gunmen targeted Mumbai's luxurious hotels and tourist attractions on Nov.26 with automatic weapons and hand grenades in a 60-hour terror assault, killing nearly 200 people and injuring almost 300.