Bonhomie at the top, but hostility on ground in Indo-Pak relations

DNA Analysis

NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan are in the midst of a diplomatic spat at a time when all resources should have been combined to give humanitarian help to the victims of the Samjhauta Express blasts.

It was an unseemly end to an otherwise excellent visit by Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, with a plane full of grievously injured victims waiting at the airport for over five hours before finally taking off.

Nobody knows whether it was actually a technical snag — the official reason — or Pakistan’s desire to carry all the injured passengers home from Delhi. Rana Shaukat Ali and his wife, who lost five of their six children in the terrorist strike, wanted to go back to Panipat to identify the bodies. The Pakistanis said privately that police were questioning them and not letting them take the flight.

Whatever the reason, if there had been better co-ordination between the two sides, the patients, many of them badly burnt, would not have had to suffer the ordeal of a long wait.

But petty squabbling is nothing new to India and Pakistan. They did it even after the earthquake of 2005, which brought death and destruction to Kashmiris on both sides, by denying each other access.

Soon after the Samjhauta Express incident, both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf vowed not to let terrorists derail the fragile peace process.  

This is why, despite the attack, Kasuri arrived in the capital on Tuesday for talks with Pranab Mukherjee.

But the baggage of 60 years of suspicion is hard to shake off. So is the mind-set at junior levels in both countries.

After the cordial meeting between Mukherjee and Kasuri on Wednesday afternoon, the bonhomie seemed to evaporate by evening. Pakistan was furious at what it felt was India’s bid to link the arrival of a transport plane to fly the grievously injured victims back with permission for an Indian team to go to Islamabad to question passengers.

“The victims are now being regarded as suspects,” said a Pakistani official, on condition of anonymity. “Initially after the attack, India co-operated beautifully. I thought for once our countries will forget the past and come together to give succour to people affected on both sides. But the attitude of Indian authorities has been quite shocking.”

India dismissed the charge. “We naturally want to talk to some of the victims,” said one official, also on condition of anonymity. “We are not saying we regard them as suspects. We have not yet formally made any request for an investigating team to travel to Pakistan. But if necessary at a later date we may want help.”

Indian officials said privately that most of the burnt passengers were not in a condition to travel. “But the Pakistanis are forcing the doctors to allow them to travel and trying to say that our police is not allowing Rana Shaukat Ali and family to return,” the official said.

Foreign office spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters: “This attack underscores the need for effective action against terrorist groups wherever they exist. We hope that authorities in Pakistan will extend all cooperation in investigations when required, in the interest of identifying and punishing the guilty.”