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| India-Pakistan |
| Bollywood, saris and a bombed train |
| 2007-02-23 |
| BANGALORE - While the larger aim of the terror attack on the Delhi-Lahore Samjhauta Express last Sunday night might have been to undermine the ongoing India-Pakistan peace process, it was to snap the mass people-to-people contact that the train enabled that could have been the more immediate goal. Pakistan-based jihadis, who Indian security officials say are the most likely to have carried out the attack in which nearly 70 people died, are said to be alarmed by the "corrupting influence" of Indian popular culture on Pakistani people. By targeting the Samjhauta Express, those who masterminded the attack sent out a chilling message that they are determined to sever the growing links between the people of the two countries. The Samjhauta Express, which connects Delhi with the Pakistani city of Lahore, was launched 30 years ago. Also called the "Friendship Train", it is often regarded as the barometer of the India-Pakistan relationship. It has been suspended twice - in the mid-1980s at the height of the Sikh separatist movement in the Indian border state of Punjab and in 2002, when India and Pakistan were on the brink of war after an attack by Pakistan-backed terrorists on India's parliament building. |
| Posted by:John Frum |