We know you can't trust them

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

Few newspapers in the country, whether those published in the English language or those in regional languages, doubted Mumbai Police Commissioner AN Roy's allegation that Pakistan was behind the train blasts in Mumbai. In the north, most newspapers led with the allegation on the first day, and prominently displayed the foreign secretary's statement the next day promising that Pakistan would be sent the proof. Papers like Rajasthan Patrika, Dainik Bhaskar and Punjab Kesari, all had editorials on the issue. All took the same line: how many times do we have to give the Pakistanis proof of their involvement, how can we have a dialogue with them, and so on. Dainik Jagran also had a small story on the front page, the day of the police chief's press conference, with BJP leader Arun Jaitley's picture "" with Jaitley asking why the PM made the statement he did in Havana under the circumstances.

In the Kannada press, the story was also the lead story for the day. Subsequent developments, such as the nabbing of one of the prime accused in Belgaum, kept the story alive on later days as well. There were a series of reports on the day-to-day developments with newspapers attacking the state government for not improving its security apparatus. The Praja Vani editorial argued for better co-ordination between the central and state intelligence agencies. Kannada Prabha had detailed stories from Belgaum on the possible fall-out of the arrest.

The Telugu print media gave preference to state politics and other investigative stories on land encroachments near the Outer Ring Road project on their front pages, relegating the Mumbai police chief's allegations to the inside pages. All the three leading Telugu dailies "" Eenadu, Vaartha and Andhra Jyothi "" carried the announcement made by Maharashtra deputy chief minister RR Patil and Mumbai police commissioner AN Roy on ISI's hand in the blasts, and Pakistan internal affairs minister Aftab Ahmed's denial as two-column stories in their inside pages. The newspapers also carried a story on the Counter Intelligence Department declaring a high alert in the state in the wake of the arrest of a militant in Hyderabad, the next day.