US blames Pak for deteriorating ties with India

TIL Desk/World/Washington/ The Trump administration has blamed Pakistan for deteriorating Indo-Pak relations and warned that the ties might worsen further if another ‘high-profile’ terrorist attack emanates from across the border this year.

“Islamabad’s failure to curb support to anti-India militants and 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, set the stage for a deterioration of bilateral relations in 2016,” Daniel Coats, director of National Intelligence, told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing.

Testifying before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence along with top intelligence officials, Coats said the relations between India and Pakistan became more tense following two major terrorist attacks in 2016 by terrorists crossing into India from Pakistan.

“They might deteriorate further in 2017, especially in the event of another high-profile terrorist attack in India that New Delhi attributes to originating in or receiving assistance from Pakistan,” Coats said in his testimony before the Senate committee on worldwide threats.