The Indian government is undoubtedly correct. It believes that the terrorists responsible for the deadly bomb attacks in Hyderabad in which at least 42 were killed and many more injured were determined to destroy the traditional harmony between the Muslim and Hindu communities in the city. It is, however, less easy to credit their professed certainty at such an early stage in the investigation that the perpetrators are terror groups based in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Unless the authorities have intelligence that there is a coupling of violent groups in both these countries — which given the mutual enmity between them would seem unlikely — this judgment is surely rash.
There are no doubt terror cells with Pakistani connections in India. At the same time, there are Hindu fanatics in India who are themselves committed to creating religious violence. It is just as likely that they were behind the Hyderabad bombings since bigots, whether Muslim or Hindu, oppose the peaceful and harmonious coexistence of religious communities.
The watchword, as the Indian government has said, must be vigilance. All religious leaders in Hyderabad and all over India must counsel their followers against angry and precipitate action.
If decent Indians are duped into violent protest as a result of these and other bombings, then they are playing into the bloody hands of the hidden killers. Communal violence is precisely what the terrorists want. Those ordinary Indians who are provoked into demonstrations, which could turn violent, are effectively putting a gun against their own heads and pulling the trigger.
In a larger frame, these attacks are clearly designed to undermine the slow but still fruitful rapprochement between Delhi and Islamabad. The gradual building of trust among politicians has to be matched by a consensus between the men and women in the street. With this in mind, it is unfortunate that the Hyderabad bombing coincided with Pakistan’s test of its Hatf-VIII cruise missile. Although India is also working on its own weapons program and each country accepts that their closer relations as they edge toward a Kashmir settlement must be based on a balance of power, the test was not at an opportune moment.
It is important for all men of good will to unite in the face of terrorism. The men of violence can be defeated if the populations they target refuse to be cowed and terrorized. All decent men are angered by mass murder but that emotion cannot be allowed to turn negative by inciting fury and hatred. India is too big and too great a country to be in the least threatened by the savage brutality of the terrorists.
The open-air auditorium and restaurant in Hyderabad were popular with all the city’s residents. The entire city is rightly appalled by what happened but this tragic loss of life is not going to stop the rapid pace of economic growth here as elsewhere in the country. Only the Indians can do that themselves by giving in to violent responses to barbarity of the terrorists.
