‘Onus on Islamabad to improve India-Pak ties’

WASHINGTON: Relations between India and Pakistan could worsen in 2017 unless there is a “sharp and sustained” drop in cross-border terror attacks from Pakistan, the US intelligence said on Thursday in its first report on worldwide threat assessment under the Trump administration, putting the onus of improving ties on Islamabad.

The report warned of Pakistan’s tactical nuclear weapons being captured by non-state actors, and of “persistent but diffuse” threats from Pakistanbased terrorist groups to the US and the West.

Plots against the US homeland, it said, will be “conducted on a more opportunistic basis or driven by individual members within these groups”.

The warning that India-Pakistan relations “might deteriorate further in 2017” was premised on “the event of another high-profile terrorist attack in India that New Delhi attributes to originating in or receiving assistance from Pakistan”.

The report put the responsibility for improving relations on Pakistan. It echoed India’s position that Pakistan had failed to curb its support to anti-India terrorists and said New Delhi’s “growing intolerance of this policy, coupled with a perceived lack of progress in Pakistan’s investigations into the January 2016 Pathankot cross-border attack” caused a deterioration of relations last year. HTC