People's Democracy

EDITORIAL

Peace Offensive Needed To Curb Terrorism

THE serial blasts of last week killing 61 innocent civilians and grievously injuring hundreds of others who were shopping in crowded Delhi markets on the eve of Diwali and Id have been condemned by one and all. Despite the severity of the gruesome act, the terrorists have not been able to cow down the citizens of Delhi who did not panic, refused to give in to any unwanted provocation and went about their business, though subdued, in a normal way.

A spurt in terrorist activities of the recent past and more particularly the Delhi blasts are indicative of the growing frustration among terrorist groups who seem to have become unnerved by the growing demonstration of the desire for peace among the people of India and Pakistan. After the devastation wrought by the high intensity earthquake on October 8 on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu & Kashmir, the response of people for providing succour to the victims, disregarding boundaries, provided an opportunity to tackle the politics of fear, hate and apprehension. As is to be expected in such a complicated situation, slowly but surely the governments of India and Pakistan are trying to find out ways to cooperate in providing relief to the quake affected people. Terrorist groups are worried that such a development may lead to their isolation and irrelevance.

In this context, the decision of the two governments to allow people along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir to cross the border at five transit points is a welcome development. The government of India has acted in a mature manner for not allowing this initiative to be derailed by the provocative blasts. It was also sensible on part of the government of India not to indulge in an anti-Pakistan rhetoric at this juncture. At the same time, the government of Pakistan will have to ensure that its land is not used by terrorist groups, so that there may take place a meaningful growth of mutual trust between the two governments and two peoples. At the same time, the government of Pakistan must take resolute steps to curb the activities of these organisations. Further, now that President Pervez Musharraf has promised to extend full cooperation for the Delhi blast probe, there is no reason why the two countries cannot share their inputs about terrorist outfits so that this challenge could be effectively met.