Although India is trying to maintain pressure on Pakistan in the aftermath of Mumbai terror attacks, yet its coercive diplomacy is proving hollow. Indian fruitless strategy could be judged from the self-contradictory statements of its External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee who while changing his earlier stance that Islamabad should hand over the militants, responsible for the Mumbai catastrophe to India, said on January 15, this year that New Delhi is ready to accept a "fair trial" of the terror suspects inside Pakistan. Surprisingly, next day, he again reverted to his previous stand that the perpetrators must "face Indian justice." However, confused statements of Mukherjee show that as to how India has been making futile efforts to entangle Pakistan in the Mumbai tragedy through a policy of intimidation - whose evidence is self-fabricated, prepared not only to conceal the involvement of Indian home-grown terrorists but to utilize the events to fulfill some nefarious aims to isolate Pakistan diplomatically in the comity of nations. However, Pakistan has refused to accept Indian duress regarding the extradition of the alleged persons, belonging to the banned Lashkar-i-Taiba or Jamat-ud-Dawa as it is taking actions against them according to the law of its own country. In this context, unlike New Delhi, Islamabad's peaceful approach and offer of joint investigation in relation to Mumbai catastrophe have been appreciated by China, UK and Saudi Arabia. In this respect, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband who recently visited New Delhi, rejected Indian demands that the fugitives of the Mumbai tragedy should be extradited and probed by India, while elaborating that Britain supports Pakistan's stand of their prosecution through the judicial system of the latter. On January 16, he re-iterated his remarks during his visit to Islamabad. He also pointed out that complete de-escalation of situation between Pakistan and India was fully linked to resolution of Kashmir issue, saying that India should cooperate with Pakistan in this regard. Notably, American incoming President Obama has repeatedly been expressing these views. On the other hand, India has denounced these calls about Kashmir. It is of particular attention that in the recent past, US vice president-elect Joseph Biden, during his visit to Islamabad had asked Pakistan to cooperate with India in investigating the November 29 incident. While describing Pakistan as a valued ally and acknowledging its important contributions to the war on terror, he also assured that the US new administration would have full cooperation with Islamabad-pledging socio-economic aid of the country. Although both the United States and the Great Britain which are trying to defuse war-like situation between the two South Asian countries and do not agree with Indian coercive diplomacy, yet they are insisting upon Pakistan to take action against the culprits of Mumbai carnage quickly. This fact shows without any doubt that these major countries have pro-Indian tilt due to their collective strategic interests, connected with New Delhi. But their foremost priority is to fight war on terror in Afghanistan. And Pakistan is still playing the role of a frontline state for this different war. As Islamabad has started moving its troops from the western to eastern border owing to mobilization of Indian troops, this step has embarrassed the US-led allies who are now seriously insisting upon New Delhi to observe restraint. It is because of this factor that Indian coercive diplomacy, which it launched against Pakistan, under the pretext of Mumbai terror attacks, has proved unsuccessful. Renowned political thinkers like Machiavelli, Morgenthau and Kissinger, while emphasising the power as the main determinant of international politics, in form of bargaining, threats and pressure strongly support diplomacy of coercion in one way or the other. Nevertheless, it may be applied by the powerful states on the weaker ones, but is quite useless in case of "nuclearised" India and Pakistan. It is mentionable that setting aside Indian pressure, Pakistani government is determined on its stand by rejecting New Delhi's demands in connection with the extradition of the Mumbai alleged suspects. Moreover, taking cognizance of Indian coercive diplomacy, Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff has repeatedly made it clear on January 17 that the army is ready to deal with any threats to the country's security. No doubt, Indian coercive diplomacy vis--vis Pakistan is based upon hollowness. The writer is a foreign affairs analyst E-mail: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com