Truth derailed by "Samjhautha"

The terror attack on the Lahore-bound Delhi-Attari Express train earlier this week which left nearly 70 dead and scores injured, is destined to go the way of the Mumbai blasts: Shed some (crocodile) tears, mouth a few cliché-ridden Unquotable quotes, order a meaningless probe, and mine the tragedy for some political capital.

The tamasha over the tragedy began even before the body count could be completed. Pakistan started off the block, making some sympathetic noise, called for a joint probe and sharing of evidence, and swiftly changing gears, pointed its fingers at "Hindu extremists' chiefly the Shiv Sena, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal. The Indian government did likewise, but refused to react to the finger pointing against the Sangh Parivar. No prizes for guessing why.

Juxtapose the UPA government's coyness in reacting to the "Hindu bashing" from across the border to the preliminary finding of the security agencies probing the Samjhautha Express blasts. According to the investigating team and widely quoted Home Ministry sources, vital clues point to the involvement of the Pak-based militant groups, chiefly the Lashkar-e-Tayaba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. These militant groups, it is believed, have adopted a new modus operandi of detonating low-intensity blasts with explosive materials comprising readily available combustibles.

Juxtapose this with what a section of the Pakistan media has to say about the incident. Countering the Hindu-bashing by sections of the media, The Daily Times, in an editorial, said that the Indo-Pak peace process had been taken forward "at the cost of the jihad being waged by our religious warriors". The paper goes on to say: "'Some opposition politicians and the jihadi elements have openly accused Musharraf of having betrayed the Kashmir cause by trying to normalise relations with India. The culprits can be narrowed down further. It could be someone who hates Musharraf more than he loves fellow Muslims. …Let us pray it is not a Pakistan-linked terrorist organisation that has killed people going to India to meet their relatives. …India has lately been victim of sabotage and terrorism, but the trend is more associated with Pakistan than with India. Just as the Indians accuse some Lashkar or the other every time there is a blast in India, we used to accuse India whenever there was an explosion on our side, until, of course, our noses were rubbed in the evidence that it was our own jihadis who were doing it."

When their own government has jumped the gun and predictably blamed Hindu extremists, the Pakistan media has tried to blow the whistle on this canard and pointed instead at the jihadis - the very ones who are the chief suspects according to our security agencies and the Home Ministry. In striking contrast, our government refuses to utter so much as a word on the Pakistan establishment's lies - exposed as such by their own (Pakistani) media - as it will be perceived to be in defense of the Sangh Parivar.