United against terror

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

Not surprisingly, given their intensity and impact, most regional newspapers across the country lead with the news of the Malegaon blasts. In north India, Dainik Jagran even had an editorial on the subject, complimenting the Muslim leadership on retaining its calm despite the provocation, and said that this showed that terrorists were willing to go to any extreme to shatter the calm. Dainik Bhaskar, another prominent Hindi daily carried the story as the lead and the second lead on consecutive days "" on one day, it had a three-column picture alongside the story, of Muslims in Ahmedabad carrying anti-Pakistan slogans. One poster read, "Sometimes it's temples, sometimes it's mosques, and sometimes the attack is on graveyards."

In Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu press gave extensive coverage to the Malegaon blasts on their front pages on Saturday. While Vaartha splashed it as the second lead, Eenadu and Andhra Jyothi carried it as anchor stories on their front pages, besides carrying photo-collages of the dead bodies and those injured in the blasts. The newspapers also carried two-column stories on the government declaring a red alert in the state in the wake of the blasts.

In the Kannada press too, all leading newspapers displayed the incident as the front-page lead. The news continued to occupy front page for the next two days. Vijaya Karnataka, the market leader, carried a quarter-page photo of the blasts on the front page. It dedicated the entire first page to the incident. In its editorial, the newspaper said the incident was a warning to the Indian security apparatus. "There is a need for changing the approach of the security agencies in the wake of the unexpected blasts. Things may go out of control if radicalisation of communities does not stop," it opined. Similarly, Praja Vani dedicated a lot of space to the coverage of the incident throughout the week. There were a number of follow-up reports on the issue. In its editorial, the newspaper said the security agencies should pull up their socks for failing to foresee such a terrorist attack. Another leading newspaper, Kannada Prabha, too, was worried over the incident. "That terrorist attacks are spreading to small towns of the nation is an indication of the spawning of anti-national elements," the newspaper said.

In Chennai, Dinamalar dedicated almost half of the front page to the news on the first day. On a later day, it carried a report on police releasing sketches of two suspected terrorists on the front page and another story on an inside page.