Message from Mumbai

It would be useful for India to not simply ask Pakistan to accept its charges. It may well be the case that the Maharashtra police has a good case. But it would be much better if India voluntarily ups the standard of evidence gathering and presentation by assuming a hostile interlocutor. The trick here is to present a case so watertight that for Pakistan to say no would mean automatic and strong doubts about its sincerity of purpose vis-a-vis the joint mechanism. Then India would have plenty of options. But if it follows the standard operating procedure in terrorism cases, its only option would be another round of sterile, cross-border bickering.

One way for the police and diplomats in India to understand the importance of surefooted detective work would be to look at some of the court observations in terrorism cases. The 7/11 investigation breakthrough comes at a time of verdicts for the 1993 Mumbai blast case and the Parliament attack case. While finding terrorists guilty, judges have had things to say about shoddy and dodgy police procedure. Think about it this way: if police methods improve, India will gain whether or not

Pakistan learns to accept facts.