Cooler Heads

Are not, apparently, prevailing over the Mumbai train bombings. The Guardian reports that India says Pakistan had a "hand" in the bombings. Talks between the two nations have been postponed. Frankly, the Bush administration better get out it's carrots and sticks real fast here to keep two allies from going at one another.

The peace process between India and Pakistan fell victim to the Mumbai bombings yesterday as talks scheduled for next week were reportedly delayed because New Delhi said it had evidence that its neighbour had a "hand" in the attacks.

Top civil servants of each country's foreign ministries were to have discussed seemingly intractable border disputes. New Delhi TV reported that the talks would be postponed, although no new dates were mentioned.

Police in Mumbai named the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba as prime suspect for Tuesday's wave of blasts in India's commercial hub in which almost 200 people were killed.

Photographs of two Muslim suspects, named as Sayyad Zaibuddin and Zulfeqar Fayyaz, who it was claimed were key operatives in the bombing, were shown on television. The nationalities of the two young bearded men were not given, nor was it clear where the photos - headshots which appeared to have been taken for identification documents - originated.

The news of the delayed talks brought a sharp reaction from Pakistan's foreign minister, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri. He said India should be careful about trying to attribute the attacks to Pakistan-based militants.

"There are attacks in other parts of India, there should not be a knee-jerk reaction that everything happening in India starts in Pakistan," he said.

This is not a heartening development. One hopes both sides can figure this out and reach a good outcome. Especially since there is likely another hand in what is going on (read Iran). Don't let's get at each other's throats. That is exactly what some people want.