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Pakistani nationals have become targets on Indian soil as 66 passengers die after bombs explode on the Samjhauta Express. The cross-border peace train has been temporarily halted, even as terrorist try to derail the Indo-Pak peace process. However, their move could be counter productive and may even act as a catalyst to speed up the slow moving peace process in the sub-continent.
In cowardly fashion by setting a train on fire at mid-night through low intensity blasts makes it amply clear that terrorist are wary of the India Pakistan peace dialogue and stand to loose a lot if relations between the two countries normalise fast.
Pakistani nationals having become terrorism victims on Indian soil, perhaps for the first time, may just force the Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri and his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukerjee, scheduled to meet later in the week, to take a holistic view of containing terrorism in the sub-continent and not become hostage to terrorist diktats and such attacks.
An increased people to people contact between India and Pakistan, which the Samujhauta train symbolizes, is exerting pressure on the governments of both the countries for a negotiated peace but the terrorist organistations have again attempted to derail the process.
• Unaware of impending disaster people boarded the Samjhauta Express at Delhi at about 10:40 pm, Sunday night, hoping to reach their destination, Lahore, carrying a lot of cross border goodwill.
• Peace was shattered when bombs exploded on the train while the passengers were fast asleep, setting on fire to two bogies, killing 66 people and injuring many others.
• The incident took place at 11:15 pm, near Shiva Village, about 100 kilometers from Delhi.
• Two other bombs were found on the train, which were diffused by security personnel. Security forces claimed the bombs appeared to be homemade and could have been detected by metal detectors if security measures were in place.
• High security concerns had kept all train exit doors sealed in the lower class coaches, which turned the two enflamed bogies into death chambers for most of the passengers were killed either due to burns or suffocation.
• Within hours of the train catching fire, the authorities detached the burned dwon coaches and rest of the train left for the destined India-Pakistan border.
Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav is quoted to have said:
It's sabotage -- it's an act of terrorism like the one in Mumbai.
The Samjhauta Express, a bi-weekly train, runs between Delhi and Attari in India and Wagah and Lahore in Pakistan. The train links are one of the most visible results of the peace process underway runs between India and Pakistan. The train has acted like a barometer, recording the confidence building measures set in motion by the AB Vajpayee-Nawaj Shariff governments.
The path breaking Indo-Pak train service was brought to an halt on January 1, 2002 in the wake of a terrorist attack on Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001. The train service was resumed on January 15, 2004.
Indian trains are a soft target for terrorist attacks.
• Rafiganj rail disaster, derailment of a train on a bridge over the Dhave River in North-Central India on 10 September 2002
• Incident on Ahmedabad-bound Sabarmati Express at Godhra, Gujarat, on February 27, 2002, torching of the train was followed by communal violence.
• The Jaunpur train bombing occurred on July 28, 2005, when an explosion destroyed a carriage of an express train near the town of Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh
• Serial bomb blasts in Mumbai's local trains on 7/11, 2006
Many terrorist attacks are aimed to trigger a Hindu-Muslim schism. This remains another effort. India has hundreds of thousands of miles of railway track, and over 14,000 trains criss-cross the country every day. These are tempting targets for attacks on trains, whether direct assaults, bombings or deliberate derailing through sabotage
The incident comes days before Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri is due in New Delhi for talks with Indian leaders to push forward a slow-moving peace process between the countries. The India-Pakistan joint commission, to be chaired by
Kasuri and Pranab Mukherjee are to review the peace process as well as discuss a newly-launched anti-terrorism mechanism. However, now it remains to be seen whether the Pakistan government will relax visas restrictions for Indian passengers. Will the broken train to the peace process still bring any results?
