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Indo-Pak peace fights the
battle of Panipat, so far winning against train bombs
WSN Bureau
 DIWANA (PANIPAT): So fragile has been the peace
process between sworn enemies India and Pakistan that official
dialogue often stumbles on pebbles. Even a year ago, a small blast
(God forbid!) aboard the Sada-e-Sarhad bus running across Wagah
would have left enough debris of hatred to bury the peace process.
But in Panipat, a town famous for historic battles that changed the
destiny of Delhi, the after effects of the dastardly attack have
been unusual.
India and Pakistan have sworn again this week
to continue on to the road that leads to peace. Bombs ripped apart
the train and citizens of both Pakistan and India, but the Pakistan
foreign minister Khurshid Ahmed Kasuri refused to cancel his trip
scheduled within the next 48 hours. In fact, he extended it.
President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh refused
to play the blame game.
India of course quickly signed the cheques for
Rs 10 lakh each for victims, even for the Pakistanis. The dead do
not return at the sight of a cheque in India or Pakistan, but it
helps the poor to get a hold on to life. Most of the travelers on
Samjhauta aren't really rich. The train takes a shameless 20 hours
to do the 300 km journey, and the rich prefer to fly.
Someone lost a leg, the other a family. One
Pakistani woman lost her five children. Tales of the dead and the
living-dead could render asunder even the stone hearted. The cries
pierced through the subcontinent but not through the peace process;
instead that seems to have been only strengthened.
Anger was there nevertheless. The injured were
receiving medical help but the anxious relatives were angry at the
awful security mismanagement compounded by the pathetic inability to
provide information.
Clearly, at a time when India is a nuclear
power, laying claim to become an IT power and asking for a permanent
seat in the Security Council, it has to have a re-look at the fact
that the country's meteoric ascent has a lot of dust in the tail.
 India was quick to dish out visas to anyone of
the relatives of the victims in Lahore or Islamabad. Clearly, the
interests of those behind the blasts are different from the
interests of India, Pakistan, or Punjab. (See editorial)
Two blasts occurred on the 4001 Delhi-Attari
train within 72 minutes of the train leaving Old Delhi Railway
Station at 10.40 pm on Sunday night. At least 67 passengers on board
two coaches perished in the ensuing fire when the train was
approaching the Diwana railway station near Panipat. At least 12
passengers are recovering from burns at the Safdarjung Hospital in
New Delhi.
Pakistan PM Shaukat Aziz has been in touch with
Manmohan Singh.
Preliminary investigations into the nature of
explosives used to trigger the blasts have revealed a crude mixture
of sulphur and potassium nitrate and kerosene-filled glass bottles.
Officials said a low grade mixture of potassium nitrate with sulphur
had been packed in a suitcase along with several bottles filled with
kerosene. The combination of sulphur and potassium nitrate, highly
combustible in nature, is generally used in the manufacture of
gunpowder. Immediately on detonation, kerosene spilt all over in one
compartment, causing a massive fire that spread quickly and engulfed
another general compartment. The morning after the terrorist attack,
bodies charred beyond recognition, mangled metal, burnt bangles,
footwear and other belongings of the passengers were to be seen at
the site.
Some of the dead Pakistanis were born in this
part of India. Some of the relatives wanted them to be buried in
India itself. Death sometimes brings one home. May be it will take
peace home too. The subcontinent has been singed for too long.
Trains full of dead bodies bring back ghosts of 1947. And the fact
that Muslims travel to and fro on the Samjhauta Express to meet
their kin divided by bloody cartography supervised by the Raj is
also a legacy that now calls out for peace.
21 February 2007
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