United in terror

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

Understandably, the terror strike on the Samjhauta Express, which killed 67 people, was the main news story of the week, with nearly all Hindi dailies carrying it as the main lead on their front pages.

On the day after the blasts, Rajasthan Patrika recounted the chain of events in minute detail, right from the moment the train took off from Delhi to the point the blasts occurred near Panipat at 11.40 pm on Sunday night. This report was accompanied by a picture of the burnt bogies. Other newspapers too gave substantial space to the pictures of the bogies.

In an edit in Dainik Bhaskar, former bureaucrat G Parthasarthy criticised the Indian government's inept handling of the security apparatus within the country. Despite what he said was clear evidence of Pak's involvement in numerous such strikes in the past, Parthasarthy rued India's continued involvement in the peace process. "The Samjhauta attacks," he wrote, "will soon join the long list of terrorist strikes that have been conveniently forgotten. Government action is long overdue."

Punjab Kesari also toed the hawkish line. In an edit that drew attention to the Pakistan media blaming Hindu nationalist organisations/parties such as the Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena for the attacks, the paper criticised Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri for their double-speak on terror. The paper also questioned Kasuri's offer for a joint probe, wondering why he didn't instead ensure Pakistan didn't export terror.

All the prominent Marathi newspapers including Sakal, Loksatta and Maharashtra Times carried the story of the Samjhauta Express blasts as the first lead in Tuesday's editions and also wrote editorials on the event, whose general theme was an appeal to not let the act of terror derail the Indo-Pak peace process. A Maharashtra Times editorial pointed out that these blasts could be the fallout of the power struggle between Islamic extremists and President Pervez Musharraf.

However, Sakal didn't carry any follow-up stories on the issue, either by their Delhi correspondent or the agencies. Loksatta and Maharashtra Times displayed the suspects' sketches released by the police prominently on the front page. They also reported on the Mumbai police's Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) team visiting the blast site to determine if there was any connection between the Mumbai train blasts of last September and the Samjhuta Express attack.

The attack grabbed front page attention in all the leading Kannada dailies as well. Most newspapers dedicted almost the entire front pages to the terror strike. Related reports and photo features were carried on the inside pages of the newspapers. Subsequent developments were also carried extensively.

The top three Kannada newspapers "" Vijaya Karnataka, Praja Vani and Kannada Prabha "" slammed the government in their editorials. "The blasts have created a big hole in the Indian security apparatus. It is time the government conducts an introspection on security issues," Vijaya Karnataka said.

Praja Vani too was critical of the government: "These attacks are aimed at derailing the peace process between India and Pakistan. The government agencies cared little to conduct routine security checks of important transport links between the two nations resulting in this serious and unpardonable lapse."