A series of home made IED’s explosions in Mumbai that killed 17 people and left scores injured on the eve of 13 July deserve strong condemnation. The terrorist act cannot be condoned in any form. It indicates that no regional country is safe from the terror phenomenon.
It was remarkable and encouraging to note that there was no knee jerk reaction by the Indian side that pointed fingers at Pakistan over blasts. The timings of these blasts are however indicative of more sinister designs of all those who want to see the region remain in a state of hostility.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is visiting India next week and the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan are to meet later this month to take the recently resumed dialogue forward. US administration official William Burns telephoned Indian Foreign Secretary to condemn the blasts but refrained from commenting on the perpetrators.
Tying these attacks with famous scapegoat, the banned LeT, would mean that India might back out from the dialogue. Such a move would further alienate both the nuclear armed nations prolonging the hostage situation kept by the nay-sayers on India–Pakistan amity.
The bombings can also be linked with the fragile security dynamics in Afghanistan -Pakistan region as it took place at a critical juncture of US-Pakistan relations wherein the US is trying to expedite its withdrawal from Afghanistan. If this creates a crisis between India and Pakistan, that would affect US-Pakistan machinations in Afghanistan.
The Indo-Pakistan crises so created will, therefore, serve the interests of Al-Qaeda and those elements who are averse to rapprochement with US post its series of debilitating back stabbings on Pakistan.
BASSAM JAVED
Islamabad
