A Pakistan high commission official in New Delhi had praised India for acting responsibly and maturely in the aftermath of the 26 November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, according to the US government cables released by WikiLeaks.
The official, whose name was deleted in the confidential cable, “praised the Indian government for acting ‘more responsibly and maturely’ than it did after the bombing of India’s embassy in Kabul”.
The cable, signed by the then US ambassador to India David C. Mulford, spoke of strong demands projected in the Indian media for retaliatory action against terror camps in Pakistan.
It quoted the Pakistani official as saying that the Indian government’s reaction to the bombing of its Kabul embassy was “impulsive and politically motivated when it immediately pinned blame on Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)”.
The US embassy’s comments on this issue in the cable was “No Military Confrontation Anticipated”.
“Despite the strong diplomatic rhetoric we expect to see in the next several months, the chances of a military confrontation are being played down by most.
“The signposts of such a military conflict are absent: there has been no mobilisation of troops at the border, ambassadors have not been recalled nor have there been requests by either side for a reduction in the number of diplomatic staff. Road, rail, and air links are still operative,” the cable said.