The Times Of India details the growing fears of Indian government officials over Pakistan border instability and the possibility of an Islamic extremist takeover :
With Pakistan tottering on the brink of uncertainty after Benazir Bhutto's assassination, the Indian security and foreign policy establishment promptly went into a huddle on Thursday evening to discuss the implications for India.
The first reading of the situation was there would be "no immediate repercussions" for India in terms of a jihadi or any other spillover from across the border.
The Pakistan Army as well as the nefarious ISI, as it is, are getting increasingly bogged down within their own borders to create major mischief across their eastern flank in India.
The mid-term to long-term estimate, however, held that the emerging situation with fundamentalists pushing the jihadi envelope from the frontier areas to well-fortified garrison towns in Pakistan, was fraught with serious consequences for India.
"An unstable Pakistan, in the danger of imploding, does have security implications for us. The terror infrastructure in Pakistan and PoK directed against India is, after all, still very much intact," said a top security official.
Far more serious is the fear that the threat of a fundamentalist takeover is not just a wargame scenario, but a possibility getting stronger by the day. "Groups of terrorists enjoying state patronage are worrisome enough. But the cost that we may have to pay if they get to control the state apparatus, the army and nuclear arsenal can't even be comprehended," said an intelligence officer.
