India, Pak shouldn’t let peace talks derail: Pak media

Though indications from India had shown that the bombings in Bangalore and Ahmedabad are “most likely the work of Indian Muslim groups, angered by what they perceive as a biased response to past communal violence and to the targeting of Muslims,” the suspicion being voiced “within the country is that the Muslim groups operating in India have links in Pakistan,” said The News in its editorial.

There were also suspicions in India that the series of attacks “is backed by outfits that are based across the border,” the daily said.

“All this of course is immensely detrimental to relations between India and Pakistan. As has happened in the past, the bombings have taken place just as dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad seemed to be moving along a positive track,” it said.

The two countries need to “work together to find means to overcome the problems that exist, to defeat terrorism and to work towards the goal of greater harmony that is vital to the future of our people, who share a common past and must together build a future,” it added.

India and Pakistan should “realise that the peace dividends for both the rivals are enormous in the shape of political stability and economic prosperity,” and the people of both countries too have “an intense desire for peace,” The Post said in its editorial.

“This desire cannot materialise unless Pakistan and India show maturity on all issues. No degree of terrorism on the part of the trouble-makers should, therefore, succeed in derailing the peace process that is in the interest of the people living in this region,” it said.

The News warned that there are forces in both the countries that “wish to prevent any warming of ties between the two neighbours. There is some reason to suspect they have struck again.

“But regardless of whether or not this is accurate, the problem is that in the Indian mind, the links between Muslim groups and bombings of course implicates Pakistan,” it said, adding this was a result of the propaganda and hostility between the two countries since 1947.

The influential Dawn newspaper and The News also said the Indian government needs to do more to address the concerns of Indian Muslims. The News claimed there should be a change in the “widespread perception among most of India’s Muslims that the state and its law enforcement and policing apparatus in many ways see them more as proxies of Pakistan and not equal citizens”.

While condemning the bombings in Ahmedabad and Bangalore, the Dawn said “thorough and well-thought-out methods of investigation” should be used to nab the real criminals and to “prevent a sense of alienation from setting in, especially among groups whose religious or ethnic identity makes them natural suspects in the eyes of the government”.