The terror attack on the Samjhauta Express has once again exposed a major security lapse and Railway minister Laloo Prasad has claimed it so.
NEW DELHI: The terror attack on the Samjhauta Express has been a huge embarrassment for India, which has normally never wasted much time in pointing a finger at Pakistan hours after such incidents.
The deadly strike comes a day ahead of Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri's visit to New Delhi for the joint commission meeting, which will help to take the peace process forward. The attack has once again exposed a major security lapse and Railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav has reportedly claimed it so.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called the blast a "heinous terrorist act" but others in the political establishment have shied away from the term. In fact, the government-controlled All India Radio has not used the word "terror attack" while reporting the deaths in the Samjhauta express. It said that a major fire had led to the devastation and loss of life.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz called Singh this afternoon to discuss the incident and the Indian Prime Minister promised to "do everything possible to ensure that the perpetrators are punished. The Prime Minister also conveyed his condolences for the Pakistani victims and promised assistance to the injured and the bereaved," the PMO said in a statement released after the conversation with Aziz.
The silver lining is perhaps the realisation that both India and Pakistan have to combat terrorism together. Both sides have confirmed that the talks scheduled for Wednesday will be on track.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was roundly criticised by the BJP for his view that both India and Pakistan are victims of terror. Singh said this after meeting President Musharraf in Havana, where the two countries decided to set up a "joint terror mechanism" as according to Singh, Pakistan is as much a victim of terrorism as India.
However, according to Former chief of RAW, A S Dulat, what has happened is tragic but that the incident will make the two countries work seriously against terror is a wishful thinking.
"There is a gradual realisation that terrorism affects everybody. The terror mechanism set-up jointly by India and Pakistan was the result of the feeling. I am hoping that the two sides will now work together," said SD Muni of the Observer Research Foundation.
G.Parhasarathy, ex-Indian high commissioner to Pakistan, known for his hardline views said: "After supporting and encouraging terrorism for so long against India, it is evident that Pakistan has lost control of the terror outfits it once controlled."
"The attack on the friendship train is the work of all those who are opposed to peace between India and Pakistan. These elements want to vitiate the peace process and put the two nations back into loggerheads," said Moloy Krishna Dhar, a retired joint director of the Intelligence Bureau.
According to preliminary evidence and information gathered so far, it is the work of Harkat-Ul Jehad Islami (HUJI) headed by Abdul Karim Tunda, Dhar said. HUJI has three branches operating from Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, he added. "The modus operandi and the type of material used in the explosives mainly sulphur nitrate points to HUJI involvement," Dhar said.
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