Thursday, July 20, 2006

Mumbai Attacks-- What's the Next Step?

There are many reasonable, and some outlandish, reactions to the bomb blasts in Mumbai, India. Naresh Fernandes's op-ed in the New York Times captured the sentiments and strength of the residents in Mumbai after the attacks.
But, what’s the next step? If Lashkar-e-Taiba was involved, a terrorist group that is based in Pakistan, should India attack Pakistan? The question is addressed in an op-ed by Xenia Dormandy in The Washington Post. She assumes that Pakistan had a hand in the attacks. And the column highlights the need for Pakistan and India to step up the peace talks. Dormandy does not address the possibility that another terrorist group could have planned the attack, such as the Students' Islamic Movement of India.

The Boston Herald and the Wall Street Journal view the bombings as another reason that the India-U.S. bond should be strengthened. This may be true, but the attacks that took place in India should not be responded to by force. There shouldn’t be a “war” on terror. Steps should be taken to understand and evaluate the reasons behind the attacks.
If the reason is Kashmir, Pakistan and India must step up the peace process. But that’s not simple. Many Kashmiris have been driven from their homes, and now reside in places like New Delhi and America. In my Shrewsbury neighborhood, two families speak of having to leave their homes and belongings, forced to flee from Kashmir to save their lives.

The foreign press is quick to point to India and Pakistan’s three wars in sixty years. But, newspapers don’t fully grasp the enmity. The violence from the partition in 1947 still echoes in people's minds. My grandmother and her family were among the many civilians who had to leave home in Lahore, Pakistan, and move to India because they were Hindu. Many Muslims, similarly, were forced to move to Pakistan because they were Muslim. Whole trains full of people were massacred. And riots still take place in India, renewing old wounds.

Too many lives have been lost. It’s time for India and Pakistan to get over the past and seek a peace settlement for the future.

Posted by Swati Gauri Sharma at 05:31 PM

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