PrintFebruary 15, 2010
India-Pakistan peace process derailed by bomb blast
“There can never be peace until they learn to love their children more than they hate us.”-Golda Meir.
Sadly these words continue to ring true today. Just days ago it seemed as if the stalled peace talks between India and Pakistan would resume for the first time since the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008. On Friday the BBC reported that.
“It was decided that foreign secretary level talks between the two countries would be held on February 25 in New Delhi,” a statement from the Pakistan Prime Minister’s office said.Pakistan “should raise all the core issues and impress upon India the need for expeditious resolution through resumption of composite dialogue,” the statement added, alluding to Pakistan’s demand to discuss a whole range of issues with its rival.
Richard L. Benkin expressed skepticism in his American Thinker blog on Saturday. Mr. Benkin noted that although Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani announced the upcoming talks between the two countries, his Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had earlier rejected the prospect of talks with India and stated that “these will be fruitless talks.”
The fragile attempt to re-start the peace process between the two nuclear powers was shattered on Saturday night at 7:30 local time by a bomb blast in a bakery in the city of Pune, which is located 125 miles southeast of Mubai. The death toll now stands at 9 with an additional 57 wounded by the blast. The bomb had been concealed in an unattended backpack which was left at the bakery by one or two people posing as customers and was detonated by a waiter who may have tried to open the backpack.
The UK Telegraph reports.
Hindu nationalist leaders blamed the attack on Pakistan and demanded the government call off next week’s peace talks, the first between the nuclear armed powers since the Mumbai siege.“India’s initiative to hold peace talks with Pakistan is misconceived and adventurous,” said Arun Jaitley, a top leader of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. He said Indian shouldn’t restart peace talks until Pakistan stops allowing terrorists to base themselves there and punishes those involved in the Mumbai attacks. “Terrorism and talks can’t coexist,” Jaitley said.In Pakistan, Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani denounced the blast and indicated his government still wants the peace talks to go ahead. “We condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” Gilani told reporters in Rawalpindi, outside Islamibad.The bakery is about 200 yards (200 meters) from the Osho Ashram, a renowned meditation center that (Home Minister) Pillai said had been surveyed by David Headley, who is facing charges in Chicago for allegedly scouting targets for the Mumbai attack.
The Chabad Jewish Center located near the bakery was also said to have been surveyed by Mr. Headley according to India’s Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram. As we can see Golda Meir has again been proven correct in her keen observation of the true roots of terrorism.
Phil Boehmke / philbepreston@yahoo.com
